
Class :^-k'-54^i3 

Book ^Ui— 

GopyrightN" 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



KOREA 

©Iff ffilanii. l^topk, mti 



By 
GEORGE HEBER JONES 

President of the Biblical 
Institute of Korea 




CINCINNATI : JENNINGS AND GRAHAM 
NEW YORK; EATON AND MAINS 



.3-1 



Two Goyies Received 

MAK W 1907 

ri Copyrlgfht Entry 

pLASS i XXC, No. 

/ v> b 

COP^ 



Copyright, 1907, by 
Jennings & Graham 



PREFACE 

The necessary limits of a condensed 
hand-book have rendered it impossible to 
treat of many interesting phases of Korea 
and the Koreans. Two main objects have 
been kept steadily in mind by the author. 
First, to show the conditions amidst which 
missionaries labor, by briefly describing the 
land, people, customs, and religious life of 
the Koreans ; and, second, to exhibit against 
this background the splendid character of 
the native Church. Brevity alone has pre- 
vented that full recognition of the self-sacri- 
ficing and very successful labors of my col- 
leagues, but as far as possible mention has 
been made in outline of the main events at- 
tending the expansion of the work under 
foreign leadership. 

GEO. HEBER JONES. 
N^w York City, 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Country and People, - - 7 

II. Life and Customs, - - 25 

III. The Native Religions, - - 49 

IV. The Founding of the Mission, 65 
V. Expansion of the Mission, - 79 

VI. Conclusion, - - - - 96 



KOREA 



CHAPTER I. 

Country and Pe:opi,e:. 

The) Korean Peninsula extends from the 
central part of the Asiatic continent in a 
Location Southeasterly direction, separating 
and area the Japan and China Seas. It has 
been likened in shape to a rabbit, caught by 
the ear and held by Russia at Vladivostock, 
but to Oriental fancy it appears like a dag- 
ger pointing at the heart of Japan. It ex- 
tends through nine degrees of latitude (34° 
to 43° N.) and is estimated to be 600 miles 
in length, 135 miles in width, and contains 
approximately 85,000 square miles, making 
it about the size of Utah. Fusan, the south- 
ern port, is in about the same latitude as 
Atlanta, Ga., and Los Angeles, Cal. Seoul 
and Pyeng, in Central Korea, correspond 
to Richmond, Va., and San Francisco, Cal., 
7 



8 Korea 

and Kyeng-heung, the northernmost city, is 
in about the same latitude as Portland, Me. 

The climate o£ Korea is pleasant and 

healthful during the greater part of the 

year, and is like that of the Ohio 

imate y^jj^y^ ^^^ cxtremcs of temper- 
ature range from nine degrees below zero, 
to 98° above. During the winter ice forms 
on the rivers and snow falls in limited quan- 
tities. There is a rainy season, accompanied 
by heavy rainfall, the air being full of mois- 
ture, and mold forms everywhere — on walls, 
under carpets, matting, on the floor, on 
books, shoes, gloves. In July and August, 
1898, 25.5 inches of rain fell. The rela- 
tions of this rainy season to the national 
prosperity may be seen in the fact that in 
1901 only 4.1 inches of rain fell, leading to 
a drought, followed by a famine because of 
crop failure. The people were driven in 
their distress to use the seeds of weeds, 
roots of grasses, and even the bark of trees 
for food. This unnatural diet induced pesti- 
lence, the whole series of calamities result- 
ing in great mortality. The average rain- 
fall for normal years is 36 inches. 

There are no great plains in Korea, the 



Country and People 9 

country being mountainous and making of 
the people a race of mountaineers. The tip 
of the main system in the south is Halla-san, 
an extinct volcano, seven thousand feet 
Topog- ^'^S^> ^^ the Isle of Quelpart, in the 
raphy Japan Sea. As you go north the 
mountains increase in height, cuhninating 
at the Manchurian frontier in Paik-tu-san 
(Mt. Whitehead), also an extinct volcano, 
nine thousand feet high, the crater of which 
contains a beautiful lake. To the natives 
this lake is most mysterious, and is regarded 
with awe and fear, it being believed that 
death or some terrible calamity will over- 
take those who violate its sanctity to gaze 
upon its face. There are four principal 
rivers: (i) The Amnok, or Yalu, which 
forms the boundary between Korea and 
China for one hundred and seventy-five 
miles; (2) the Tai-dong, on which is lo- 
cated Pyeng Yang, the metropolis of the 
North; (3) the Han, which almost bisects 
the Peninsula, rising within thirty miles of 
the Japan Sea and emptying into the Yellow 
Sea at Chemulpo. The environs of the Im- 
perial Capital extend to the Han, and are 
only twenty-six miles from its mouth by 



10 Korea 

rail ; (4) the Nak-dong, in the south, which 
is said to be navigable for one hundred and 
forty miles by vessels drawing not more 
than four and one-half feet. 

Until recent times, the chief modes of 

travel, aside from that which nature pro- 

.. , . vides, were either by native junk. 

Modes of 1 , . 1 . 1 

Communi- or ovcrlaud m chairs or on horse- 
cation i^ack. It was not until i&go tiiat 
small river steamera were introduced on the 
Han to ply between Chemulpo and the cap- 
ital. Arnerican enterprise started the first 
railroad, which later was purchased and fin- 
ished by the Japanese, connecting Chemulpo 
(Jinsen) and Seoul, a distance of twenty- 
six miles. This road carried in 1900, 354,-. 
623 passengers and 28,975 tons oFfr eight. 
Seoul IS now connected with Fusan, the 
southern port, by a railroad two hundred 
and eighty-seven miles long, and with Wiju, 
the frontier city on the Yalu, by another 
road three hundred and fifty miles long. 
A fourth road is projected between ^eoul 
and Wonsan (Gensan), the northeast port, 
which will probably be one hundred and 
seventy-five miles long. All these railroads 
are owned by Japanese. There are 2,170 



Country and People 11 

miles of telegraph lines in Korea, and the 
Empire is a member of the Postal Union. 
Korea is a fair rival of Japan in the 
beauty of her scenery. The bleak barren 
Barley shores of the west coast, which 
Scenery confront the visitor on his way to 
the Peninsula, are but a disguise to the hid- 
den glories within. Mrs. Bird Bishop says 
that Seoul is one of the most beautifully 
situated cities in the world. Along the 
Korean shoreline of the Japan Sea is the 
Yongdong Ku-up, or the nine scenic re- 
gions, famous for centuries among the na- 
tives for their great natural beauty. The 
''Diamond Mountains," near Wonsan, de- 
rive their name from the dazzling beauties 
of their rocky peaks, and here is located 
the chief seat of the Korean Buddhist hier- 
archy. Along the Han and the Taidong 
Rivers may be found combinations of river 
and mountain scenery well worthy of a visit. 
Korea is a land of wonderfully clear and 
lucid atmosphere, rugged mountains at 
times ablaze with a riot of wild flowers, 
varied with peaceful farming scenes, sleepy 
villages and rare sunsets. 

Korea is rich in natural resources. The 



12 Korea 

chief product of the country is rice, which 
is the main dependence of the people for 
their liveHhood and the chief article on the 
national menu. Barley, wheat, buckwheat, 
and various vegetables such as on- 
ions, turnips, lettuce, the pai-chu 
(a combination of celery and cabbage), po- 
tatoes, and cucumbers often eaten, rind, 
seeds and all, with rice form the main crops. 
The chief native fruits are melons, persim- 
mons, pears, peaches, apricots, crab-apples, 
and cherries. The latter grow on bushes. 
English walnuts and chestnuts are abundant. 
Americans have successfully introduced 
such fruits as apples, pears, cherries, and 
strawberries, blackberries, raspberries (red 
and black), gooseberries, and currants. An 
inferior grade of cotton is raised, but with 
proper seed there are great possibilities for 
it in Korea, and already plans are on foot 
for an extensive development of the cotton 
industry. Tobacco and silks are also pro- 
duced, and the Peninsula is the home of the 
great medicinal root, ginseng, the market- 
ing of which is a government monopoly. 
Korea is rich in minerals. Concessions 
for gold mining have been obtained by cap- 



Country and People 13 

italists from the United States and other 
foreign countries, the American concession 
in Pyeng-an Province covering eight hun- 
dred square miles, with five mines opened 
and with five mills, operating two hundred 
stamps at work. Fifty thousand dollars' 
worth of copper has been exported from 
native mines in one year. The seas also 
bring a large amount of wealth to Korea, 
as they teem with fish. Along the eighteen 
hundred miles of shore, and about the ten 
thousand isles of which the Korean Em- 
peror is lord, may be found halibut, cod, 
salmon, the Tai (a species of carp), her- 
rings, sardines, sharks, whales, and shrimps. 
Oysters of immense size and clams are 
plentiful, and are much appreciated by the 
people. One Japanese fishing company is 
said to have caught fish to the value of 
$500,000 in one year. The pearl oyster 
abounds in the south, and valuable pearls, 
pink, white, and black, are found. 

The animals include the tiger, leopard, 

bear, deer, wild boar, fox, badger, squirrel, 

beaver, otter, marten, and sable. 

Among wild birds are the snipe, 

goose, pheasant, duck, a species of wild 



14 Korea 

turkey and pigeons, also the eagle, hawk, 
falcon, kite, crow, magpie, lark, oriole, and 
cuckoo. There are a number of domestic 
animals. Bulls are used for farming and 
carrying purposes, are of large size, and 
among the Koreans are regarded as gentle, 
''as docile as a bull" being a common ex- 
pression. Cows are worked on the farms, 
but milk, butter, and cheese are unknown 
articles of diet. The Korean dog is a cow- 
ardly creature, used as a house watch be- 
cause of his ability to make a noise, and 
sometimes appears on the native bill-of- 
fare. The domestic goose is regarded as 
superior to the dog as a house watch, being 
much more wary than his canine rival. 
Chickens are innumerable; likewise mice 
and rats. The various species of vermin 
have not been catalogued. 

The origin of the Korean people is still 
an unsolved problem, though the consensus 
of opinion is that several races 
^°^^ united to form the present people 
of the Peninsula. They have the same gen- 
eral features as the Chinese and Japanese, 
favoring somewhat their neighbors of the 
"Sunrise Kingdom." They have the dark, 



Country and People 15 

almond shaped, oblique eyes, the high 
cheek bones, and the long, straight, coarse, 
black hair of the Mongoloid races. The 
men average about five feet five inches in 
height, have a very erect carriage, due to 
their habit of sitting on the floor instead of 
on chairs, and move as a rule with consider- 
able grace. They are great pedestrians, 
and perform prodigious journeys over their 
native mountains. The women average 
about five feet two inches, have consider- 
able expression in their faces, and among 
the upper classes never appear in public. 
The costume of the men is generally 
white in color, and is designed on a plan 
to consume large quantities of 
Costume ^j^^j^^ In the old days, when cloth- 
ing was made out of the narrow goods of 
native manufacture, it was not unusual to 
use a hundred yards or more of cotton, silk, 
and linen in making a man's winter cos- 
tume. A gentleman dressed in this fashion 
passing along the road on a breezy day 
made an impressive sight. He reminded 
the observer of a full rigged ship under 
sail. The Koreans until recently wore their 
hair long, the males not cutting the hair at 



16 Korea 

all. In boyhood it is worn down the back, 
in a long luxuriant braid. Hats are the sole 
property and badge of manhood, boys al- 
ways going bareheaded except in stormy 
weather. The investiture of the male 
Korean with a hat is a very important part 
of the marriage ceremony. The prospect- 
ive bridegroom is placed in the center of 
a group of the elders of his clan, his long 
black tresses gathered up over the head, 
a silken cord tied around the hair close to 
the crown, and then his hair is twisted and 
coiled until it is reduced to a small knot 
on top of the head. This is known as the 
top-knot, and like the scalp lock of the 
Indian and the ancient Japanese, and the 
queue of the Chinese, forms a very con- 
venient handle by which the natives can 
seize each other in times of animated dis- 
cussion. To hold the hair on top of the 
head, a band made of horsehair and linen 
thread goes around the forehead, binding 
it very tightly. On top of this the hat is 
placed, which is of interesting construction 
and consists of a large brim with a top to 
it like an inverted flower-pot. The hats of 
to-day are very diminutive compared to the 
hats of years gone by, when the brims were 



Country and People 17 

so large that it is said that no more than 
three Koreans could get into an ordinary- 
sized room at the same time with their hats 
on. There are many varieties of hats, prob- 
ably the most remarkable being the sak-kat 
of the north, which is made of a kind of 
reed, and which is so large that it ad- 
mirably serves the purpose of an um- 
brella. 

The costume of the women is quite dif- 
ferent from that of the men, being varied 
among the younger women with colors, and 
the most peculiar feature of which is that 
the waist line is placed just under the arm 
pits, giving them the appearance of over- 
grown children. The Korean costume is a 
very easy and comfortable one, having no 
buttons to it and being supported on the 
body by garters and girdles. In appear- 
ance the Koreans, in spite of the strange 
form of their interesting and remarkable 
costume, are a dignified and impressive 
people, and possessing as they do many of 
the graces and accomplishments which at- 
tend genuine hospitality and courtesy, they 
are a delightful people with whom to be- 
come acquainted, 
2 



18 Korea 

Korean society is divided into several 

grades or classes. At the head of the nation 

stands the Emperor and the Imperial clan, 

which has held sway over the nation for over 

five hundred years. The Emperor 

^^*®*^ is an absolute monarch, whose 
every word is law. He is assisted in gov- 
ernment by a cabinet of Ministers of State 
and a Privy Council. The government is 
Govern- coufiued largely to the one arm of 

mcnt the Executive, as there is no Leg- 
islature, and while Courts of Law exist at 
the capital, judicial functions, as well as 
those of revenue collections, are exercised 
by the executive officers sent by the Em- 
peror into the provinces. There are thir- 
teen provinces, each presided over by a gov- 
ernor, and three hundred and forty-two dis- 
tricts or counties, presided over by pre- 
fects. The Isle of Quelpart is a separate 
jurisdiction, presided over by an imperial 
deputy and three prefects. There is an 
army, small but well regulated and organ- 
ized, with a number of distinguished men 
connected with it. Korea has no navy. No 
such thing as a popular election is known 
in Korea. All public officers are appointed 



Country and People 19 

by the Emperor, while the lower grades of 
employees of the government are subject to ^ 
the appointees of the Emperor. A prim-^ \ 
itive form of supervision exists in the ham- 
lets of the country and the wards of the 
city, in which the people may suggest a 
choice, but the appointment lies with the 
prefect. Foreigners from America, Great 
Britain, France, Germany, and 

oreigners j^p^j^ h2iYe played an honorable 
part in assisting the government of Korea 
in various capacities. In the official, com- 
mercial, and private life of the foreign com- 
munity in Korea the West has been repre- 
sented by men of the highest character, and 
the relations among themselves and with 
the Koreans have been pleasant and har- 
monious. 

The population of Korea is estimated 

among the people themselves to be 20,000,- 

000. This is a great exaggeration, 

opuation pj.Q^^2^|3iy 1 2,000,000 being a con- 
servative estimate. Next to the Imperial 
clan, in the social scale are the Yang-ban^ 
or the nobility, who fill all the offices, enjoy 
special privileges and prerogatives, and are 
the absolute rulers of the land. With them 



20 Korea 

are the literati, whose position is an honor- 
able and respected one. Then come the 
middle class men, who make up the real 
bulk of the population, and are farmers or 
merchants, or occupy the clerical offices in 
the government. At the bottom of the 
scale are the coolies or laboring classes, 
consisting of several grades, the lowest be- 
ing the butchers, and above them in rank 
the Buddhist priests, monks, and nuns, who 
in their turn are outranked by the serfs or 
household slaves. Actors are also regarded 
as in social disgrace, and classified some- 
where between the butchers and monks. 
Labor of all kinds is regarded as a badgQ 
of disgrace, and the fear of it rests like a 
nightmare upon Korean gentry who make 
any social pretensions. 

The main occupation of the nobility is 
either "running" the government, or being 

Occupa. ^^^ by ^^- "^^^^^ are two polit- 
tions ical parties in Korea — the Ins and 
the Outs. The Ins regard themselves as 
orthodox, and consider the Outs traitors. 
The literati as a class have high ideals, and 
have given to the entire range of Korean 
life a literary trend. It is no exaggeration 



Country and People 21 

to say that though the Koreans may not be 
a nation of scholars, they are certainly a 
nation of students. They are eager to 
learn, quick to comprehend, strong to re- 
tain, and it is a delight to be associated 
with them in the capacity of an instructor. 
They reverence their teachers, whom they 
classify with their officials and parents in 
their respect. This devotion to literary 
studies and ambition to be educated is not 
confined to the literary classes, but among 
the lower classes the same intense desire 
for education manifests itself, and out of 
them sometimes come men of great mental 
superiority. In study a Korean will not 
spare himself. A favorite motto is, ''Tie 
your top-knot to the ridge pole," the Korean 
equivalent of "Burning the midnight oil." 
It is said of one of their most famous prime 
ministers that- when, at the age of eighty, 
he retired from active life, he journeyed to 
the early home which he had not seen since 
his boyhood. After visiting the house in 
which he was born, he went to the school 
room in which he was educated, and taking 
the switch with which the boys are disci- 
plined, he set it against the wall and then 



22 Korea 

gravely got down on his knees and made 
three obeisances to it, saying, "The rod 
made me a man/' 

The main occupation of the people is ag- 
riculture, the Koreans being a nation of 
farmers, with the spirit, the good 

arming p^jj^^g^ ^^^ ^j^^ wcakncsscs of a 

farming people. They have strong phy- 
siques, and readily endure long hours of 
labor and exposure to the elements. Their 
power to carry loads is surprising. They 
have invented a rack, which they hang on 
their backs by straps over the shoulders, 
supporting it on the hips, and upon this 
rack a Korean has been known to carry a 
bale of cotton goods, weighing five hundred 
pounds, for a mile. They have only the 
crudest farming appliances, and farms are 
limited largely to small holdings. As there 
are no native banks, the nobility and the 
wealthy men of the land usually invest their 
fortunes in farm land, which is worked on 
shares by the farming classes. Renting for 
a cash stipend is unknown. An estate is 
made up of a large number of these small 
holdings, presided over by a steward repre- 
senting the grand seigneur. 



Country and People 23 

Business is greatly handicapped by lack 

of confidence, the native rates of interest 

ranging from two per cent to ten per cent 

a month. In Seoul there are 

^^^^^ wealthy and powerful guilds of 
various merchants who have stalls where 
they show their goods. Such a thing as 
a store, as understood in Western lands, 
is unknown in the native cities. Small 
shops may be found in some of the larger 
walled towns, and at the ogen ports, where 
native products, — wooden, brass, and iron^ 
ware, articles of apparel, household uten- 
sils, mixed with foreign importations such 
as piece goods, kerosene oil, cigarettes, um- 
brellas, and matches, may be purchased. 
Often, however, the entire stock in trade 
will not be worth more than fifteen or 
twenty dollars; In many of the smaller 
towns the shops open only once each five 
days, for shopping is done by the people 
usually on market days. These occur each 
fifth day and are held at central points, to 
which hucksters resort with such goods as 
they can carry on their backs or on a pony. 
To these market places come the farmers 
with their products, including chickens, 



24 Korea 

fruit, and bulls, and it is surprising to see 
the amount of business thus done. As many 
as twenty thousand people will be in attend- 
ance during market days in some of the 
thickly populated regions. 

Native life in Korea is on a very simple 
and primitive basis, and far behind that of 
their neighbors in China and Japan. The 
manufactures of Korea, like their natural 
resources, await development. The com- 
mercial outlook is certainly very good, for 
here we have a nation of 12,000,000 people, 
strong of physique, sturdy in many of their 
characteristics, yet docile under sympathetic 
control, diligent by nature, quick to learn^ 
and needing only instruction, the removal 
of an oppressive government and the rise 
of a generation free from the hurtful views 
which prevail concerning the dignity of 
labor, to become one of the most prosperous 
and progressive peoples of the Far East. 



CHAPTER II. 

LiFD AND Customs. 

Kore:a differs from China and Japan in 
the absence of large cities. There are a 
Cities and i^^^^^^cr of wallcd towns, the larg- 
Towns est being the capital, estimated to 
contain two hundred thousand people, 
Pyeng Yang, in the north, and Songdo, the 
ancient capital, and now the center of the 
ginseng industry, contain with their en- 
virons, possibly fifty thousand people each. 
Chemulpo, Suwon, Kongju, and Haiju arq 
very much smaller. These seven cities will 
account for between three hundred thou-, 
sand and four hundred thousand people out 
of a population of twelve millions. It will 
thus be seen that the population is scattered 
over the Peninsula in innumerable towns, 
villages, and hamlets, nestling on the hill- 
sides amidst scenes of great natural beauty^ 
The architecture of Korea is very strik- 
ing in some of its features. All houses are 
25 



26 Korea 

of but one story, so that looking from an 
elevation down upon a city like Seoul, 
Architec- ^^ ^^^ ^^^ appearance of being 
ture evenly paved with tile, variegated 
with straw thatch. A few structures used 
for pleasure or mercantile purposes are of 
two stories. The feature of one story 
houses is due to the custom of secluding 
the women, for it is a serious offense for 
any one to be found looking down into his 
neighbor's back yard. Native architecture 
culminates in the roof of the house, which 
is of a most graceful and attractive design 
where it is worked out in detail. Being of 
tile, and exceedingly heavy, it is supported 
by lordly beams and strong pillars, which 
showing on the inside give the reception 
halls of the nobility an imposing aspect. 
The eaves are very deep and thrown into 
graceful curves, being depressed at the cen- 
ter and caught up and quite extended at 
the corners. In looking at a roof of this 
kind from a distance, it seems to float in 
the air. The ordinary house is built about 
one or more sides of a quadrangle, that part 
farthest from the street being reserved for 
the female members of the family. The 



Life and Customs 27 

rooms are small, the standard of measure- 
ment being the Kan, eight feet square. The 
floors of the rooms are made of thin flag- 
stones, resting on flues, which extend under 
the entire surface of the room, starting at 
the fireplace in the kitchen, and ending at 
the chimney at the farther end of the build- 
ing. On top of these flagstones a kind of 
mud is plastered, and the whole covered 
with thick, oiled paper of a superior qual- 
ity, made fast with paste. This gives the 
house a hot floor, and no one suffers from 
cold feet. Sometimes it is too hot, especially 
for foreigners. The place of honor in a 
room is over the fireplace, and foreigners 
in traveling about the country have been 
scorched, burned, fried, and roasted in 
turns by the honest efforts of their Korean 
friends to be hospitable. The chimneys 
are usually built of tile or stone, and some- 
times located a few feet distant from the 
house. In some sections the chimney is a 
series of black earthen jars, with the bot- 
toms knocked out, or a hollowed trunk of 
a tree, or even a roll of matting, and in 
some cases it consists of a hole in the 
ground. 



28 Korea 

Korean life is very simple, and requires 

few accessories for its comfort. In the 

houses of the common people you 

Furniture ^jjj ^^ ^^^ ^^ ^j^^j^^^ ^^^^^ 

Stoves, pictures, desks, carpets, curtains,,, 
table linen, or forks. On tHe floor there 
will be matting or a rug, and a small server 
on legs does duty for a table, there being 
one for each individual. The common table 
where the family sits down as a group to 
the meal is an institution of Christian civil- 
ization and not native to Korea. The main 
furniture of the room will consist of two 
or more boxes or chests, made of choice 
wood and ornamented with artistic brass 
or iron castings. In these will be kept 
clothing, bedding, rice, money, while about 
the room may be discovered the simple im- 
pedimenta of Korean family life. The peo- ; 
pie sit and sleep on the floor, which in sum- 1 
mer time is like sitting and sleeping on top 
of the kitchen stove. Shoes are always re- 
moved at the door, as the rooms are entered 
in stocking feet. Etiquette requires a vis- 
itor tQ^take off his shoes and keep on his 
hat. |The gentry have comparatively com- 
modious and comfortable establishments at 



Life and Customs 29 

the capital, with country residences in the 
provinces. Some of them have adopted 
many of the features of modern Western 
living, such as furniture and food, and in 
several cases have built foreign style houses 
at Seoul. The mass of the people, however, 
live in farm houses throughout the valleys 
and on the hillslopes of the Peninsula. In 
these rural districts the house will include, 
besides the living room, store rooms and a 
place for the farm animals. A Korean 
house has no animal pets, the dog and the 
pig being banished to a space beneath the 
veranda, and a Korean would as soon admit 
one to his house as the other. 

Small and inconvenient as these houses 
are, within their walls are enacted all the 
comedies and tragedies of Hfe; here the 
Korean meets life's experiences and 
changes, passes through its joys and griefs, 
and endures its good or ill fortunes. The 
chapters on birth, marriage, and death are 
w^ritten with all their wealth of meaning as 
fully as in the more spacious mansions of 
Christian lands. To the European, how- 
ever, a Korean house represents the maxi- 
mum of inconvenience, with a minimum of 



30 Korea 

comfort. As a rule, the towns do not create 
a favorable impression on the traveler. 
Disorder and confusion prevail. Dirt and 
dogs abound. Sanitary arrangements are 
neither healthful nor modest, and loathsome 
diseases are met everywhere. 

The Korean people are not rich as judged 
by Western standards. It is doubtful if 
there be among the 12,000,000 of 
®^ * population twenty men whose for- 
tunes, turned into American money, would 
show six figures. At the same time there 
is no lack of men well off from the Korean 
standpoint, and there appears to be an ab- 
sence of those extremes of distress found 
among the poorer classes of India and 
China. There is no beggar class, though 
sometimes one meets with the individual 
representative of the craft. 

Social distinctions constitute a colossal 
code, full of minute details. They are re- 
garded as obligatory upon all, and 
Etiquette j^^^^y penalties punish any infrac- 
tion of them. Subordination to a superior 
is ingrained in the Korean character. 
Every man recognizes himself as under ob- 
ligations to accord defererce to some other 



Life and Customs 31 

man, and privileged to receive marks of 
respect in compensation from those who 
are beneath him. The official receives re- 
spect from the people, the parent from the 
child, the teacher from the pupil, and the 
gentry from the laboring classes. This is 
the controlling principle of Korean society. 
Official classes are graded into nine ranks, 
the members of which are most punctilious 
r in according deference to those 

People who enjoy precedence. The com- 
mon people have very few rights which 
the nobility are bound to respect. If a low 
class man is admitted to the presence of 
one of the nobles, he must bow to the floor 
in salutation, and during the interview he 
must either stand or kneel before him. His 
pipe must be hidden from sight, and he may 
not wear the native eyeglasses. This au- 
thority has given the nobility an advantage 
and a temptation which has on the whole 
not worked for the welfare of the people. 
Theoretically many of the ideals of the offi- 
cial class are good, but in practice few 
lands to-day have been cursed with more 
pernicious oppression of the common peo- 
ple than has Korea. The low class man 



32 Korea 

has had his fields and grave sites confis- 
cated, his possessions seized, and his home 
and person violated, time and again, with 
no means of redress aside from such per- 
sonal violence as he may be able to organ- 
ize. The Koreans have given striking ex- 
pression to this phase of their life in the 
proverb: ^'Big fish eat little fish; little fish 
eat shrimps ; shrimps eat mud." Within 
the last generation there has grown up a 
practice on the part of the Court of selling 
all provincial appointments, and a regular 
tariff for governorships and prefectures 
was instituted. As a result, these officials, 
corrupted by the very process by which 
they had secured office, used the machinery 
of the government to extract from the peo- 
ple the money which they had been com- 
pelled to invest, with such usury as their 
own skill and cleverness might be able to 
extort. In their view the local constabu- 
lary, the prisons, the implements of torture, 
and the penalties of the law were their 
stock in trade, with which they did busi- 
ness. A wealthy farmer was visited by high- 
waymen and robbed of most of his mov- 
able possessions. In connection with this 



Life and Customs 33 

crime, a week or two later, he fell into the 
hands of the local Yamun, and in relating 
his experiences afterward he said that he 
had fared better at the hands of the high- 
waymen than in the hands of the Yamun. 
In another region a Korean has summed 
up the situation by saying : "Apparently the 
only crimes w^hich our prefect recognizes 
are those of being prosperous and possess- 
ing money. For these we are seized, toE:. 
tured, and even sent to death !" The effect 
of this has been an utter paralysis of in- 
dustry. It w^as safer to be idle even at the 
risk of appearing lazy to visitors. The 
Koreans are by nature an industrious and 
sturdy people, as proved by their recent 
conduct as laborers in Hawaii. In days 
gone by they have shown this in their ow^n 
land, and the conditions which have pre- 
vailed in recent times have been abnormal, 
and will inevitably pass away as soon as the 
people obtain a sympathetic, strong, and 
helpful government. 

The Korean language is difficult to ac- 
quire. It is agglutinative, the_,main verb, 
Hata_(to do), having about"nine_ hundred 
different^ forms. The language is highly 
3 



34 Korea 

organized along honorific lines, and one 
must know the character of the person to 
whom he is speaking before he 
anguage ^^^ know just how to address 
him. To a person t\Yice jour own age it 
is customary to use the forms of language 
which you would use in addressing your 
Qwn father; to one ten years your senior, 
the forms you would use in speaking to 
your elder brother ; to one of your own age, 
the form used in speaking to equals ; to 
those inferior to yourself, the low forms of 
speech. There are certain forms to be used 
to officials, and these vary according to the 
dignity of the official. There are forms 
which are peculiar to the book language, 
and are never used in conversation. These 
with many other features go to make up 
a language rich in expression, delightful 
to study, but to the Westerner not easy to 
acquire. 

At birth the welcome accorded to a 

Korean depends upon his sex. If a boy, 

he is greeted with a smile; if a 

girl, the smiles are few and the 

wry faces many. The destruction of girl 

babies has never been a custom in Korea, 



Life and Customs 35 

but nevertheless they are valued but lightly^ 
This is due largely to the fact that girls_ 
are sent in marriage outside the clan, thus 
in this removal to the husband's home, be- 
coming a lost asset to their own family. 
Girls are therefore regarded as a drain on 
the family resources, for after feeding, 
clothing, and caring for them for a number 
of years they go to enrich some other clan. 
Now while this is true, it is also true that 
the life of a Korean boy or girl is not an 
unhappy one. Many pleasant customs at- 
tend their childhood, and they enjoy life 
to the full of their capacity. The boy be- 
gins school at five years of age. 
ucation g^j^QQjg ^j.g ^g ^ j.^1^ private in 

character, there being one in nearly every 
village, supported either by local funds or 
maintained by some wealthy resident. 
Sometimes these local schools are endowed, 
the endowment usually consisting of rice 
lands or a bull. Education is through the 
medium of the Chinese classics, which are 
bawled out by the boys in the first years 
of their school life at the top of their 
voices. At first the boy learns only the 
sounds and meaning of the characters, and 



36 Korea 

after he has acquired about two thousand 
of these he is taught to explain them in 
their grammatical and textual sense. The 
course of study in these schools is on a re- 
ligious foundation. The Korean scrip- 
tures — that is, the Confucian Classics — is 
the chief text-book, and though a Korean 
may come from these schools knowing very 
little of arithmetic, geography, or history, 
he does know the religious faith of his peo- 
ple, and how to conform to its require- 
ments. One of the supreme objects of 
Korean education is to impress upon the 
boy that life without religion reduces him 
to the level of birds and beasts. A Korean 
would regard with amazement the Amer- 
ican debate on the advisability of teach- 
ing the Bible in the public schools. He 
regards a man without a knowledge of 
his Bible as queerly educated. There 
are no schools for girls outside the 
sphere of Christian influence, and never 
have been. 

At the period when girls in Christian 
lands are in school, the Korean girl is a 
married woman, for they usually marry be- 
tween the ages of fourteen and eighteen 



Life and Customs 37 

years. There is no fixed age for the mar- 
riage of either boys or girls, except that 
they should marry as early as possible. 
The haste shown by parents in 

Marriage ^j^j^ j^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^ factorS— the 

requirement that a father's supreme obli- 
gations to his son is to see him properly 
married, and the fear that death may over- 
take the parent before the matter is ar- 
ranged. Boys will marry as early as nine 
years of age, though the rule is for a later 
age, from twelve to twenty years. It is 
usual for the bride to be older than her 
husband. All Korean girls get married, 
for to them wedding is destiny. There are 
no old maids in the land. The wedding is 
one of the tai-sa, or great events in the life 
of the Korean. It is always arranged by 
a third party, known as a ''go-between,'' 
whose profession as an institution takes 
the place of a Western courtship. The 
trade of a "go-between" is one of the fine 
arts of Korea, and to perform it properly 
a large knowledge of custom and super- 
stition and etiquette is necessary. For the 
auspicious event of marriage the bride is 
dressed as she never was before, and never 



38 Korea 

will be again. Her hair and eyebrows that 
grew unmolested until this day, are dressed 
and put up in a new fashion. The face is 
covered with rice powder until it is quite 
white, relieved by a circular red spot on 
each cheek and on the forehead. Her skirt 
is flaming red in color, and her jacket green 
or yellow. Her hands are wrapped in a 
red napkin, and on her head is placed the 
coronet of the nobility. It is not unusual 
that her eyelids are glued together for the 
ceremony, so that she does not behold her 
husband until after she becomes his wife. 
The bridegroom appears in court costume, 
consisting of a spacious robe of dark green 
silk, worn by officials, palace boots and a 
court hat with wings of horsehair net, a 
hoop belt of tortoise shell about his waist, 
and the stork-embroidered squares of silk, 
worn by officials, on his back and chest. 
He rides cm a white horse, among his at- 
tendants beling one who carries a wild 
goose, the symbol of conjugal fidelity, 
which he is supposed to worship. On ar- 
rival at the bride's house, the bride and 
groom are brought into each other's pres- 
ence, and the bridegroom beholds the bride 



Life and Customs 39 

for the first time. The bride will see him 
later. Ceremonial bows are exchanged, 
cups of rice wnne drunk, the wedding feast 
eaten, various salutations and greetings^ ex- 
changed, and after three days they go to 
the bridegroom's home, where after an- 
nouncing the marriage before the ancestral 
tablets the bride ceases to be a member of 
her own family, and becomes a member 
of the family of her husband. 

The wedding garb of both the bride and 
the groom is thus the most dignified and 
exalted costume known to the Koreans, 
and is a testimony of their recognition of 
marriage as a divine institution. Members 
of the lowest classes — barring the pariah 
class, of slaves, butchers, and actors — may 
on this one day of their lives appear in the 
sacred apparel of the court. This is due 
to the fact that the bridegroom is supposed 
to worship heaven on that day, and thus 
he becomes a representative before the Sov- 
ereign powers of the land, for the worship 
of heaven is reserved for the Emperor. 
The bridegroom's character is sacred, and 
he enjoys the right of way. The Korean 
wedding costume, therefore, symbolizes the 



40 Korea 

solemnity and sacredness of the occasion, 
rather than its joy. 

The position of woman in Korea is fixed 
in subordination to that of man by the Con- 
Status of ^^^^^^ code, which governs the 
Woman Hfe of the people. In childhood 
she must "follow" or be subject to her 
father, in wifehood to her husband, and in 
widowhood to her eldest son. To this con- 
dition of affairs the Korean woman has 
adjusted herself with admirable tact, and 
in the midst of her limitations achieved for 
herself a position of influence out of all 
harmony with her theoretical standing. 
The law requiring her seclusion, while it 
has doomed her to practical inferiority to 
her husband in the way of education and 
experience, has also worked as a protection 
for her in the midst of the perils of a non- 
Christian civilization. Christianity, how- 
ever, is necessarily introducing material 
changes in the position of woman wherever 
its influence is dominant. Her position in 
the home has been greatly altered in her 
public attendance on Divine worship. She 
is thus pioneering the way by means of the 
Christian Church for woman's personal en- 



Life and Customs 41 

trance into social and public life of the 
nation, where she may exert her elevating 
and refining influence.-^ j 

The Koreans have few diversions, and 
such as they have belong largely to the men 
and are greatly enjoyed by them. 
Amuse- A Korean woman never knows 
ments v^hat it is to go to school, to be 
courted, to hear a concert or lecture, to 
go to the theater, go shopping, attend a 
ball, hold a reception, or to go to a picnic 
or excursion. Therefore her life is neces- 
sarily devoid of those things which West- 
tern women know as their pleasures. The 
Korean gentry are fond of beautiful scen- 
ery, and in fair weather they will often 
go in small groups to some beautiful spot 
on the mountains, where they will spend 
the day in smoking, conversation, telling 
stories, and writing poetry. They have a 
good sense of humor, and some of their 
stories are very interesting. A favorite 
diversion among the lower classes is the 
stone fight. Opposing parties of men and 
boys, from rival towns or neighborhoods, 
will in winter time meet in some large field 
or valley, and pelt each other with stones, 



42 Korea 

in the throwing of which they become very 
expert, and varying the storm of missiles 
by charges with clubs, they continue until 
some one is killed, seriously injured, or the 
opposing party put to rout and driven from 
the field. In former years the casualties 
from this amusement were numerous, but 
the government has attempted to repress 
the practice, though in order to do so it 
was necessary to use military force. Kite 
flying is another ^reat diversion of the 
Koreans, being indulged in by men and 
boys during the windy months of Novem- 
ber and December and about the New Year. 
Instead of a tail, the kite has a round hole 
in the center of its paper face. The 
Koreans are very skillful in manipulating 
them, and will fight them high up in the 
air by crossing strings and sawing away 
until one of the strings parts, thus deter- 
mining the victor. To secure a speedy 
victory, the strings are often armed with 
powdered glass. The kite set free will be 
eagerly watched, and as it comes down a 
great scramble ensues to secure possession 
of it by the men and boys of the neighbor- 
hood where it falls. 



Life and Customs 43 

Probably the greatest ceremony is that of 

the funeral. Believing that their own future 

. welfare and happiness depends 

Funeral . i i . i 

Ceremo- upon the reverence and care which 
"'^^ they show to the dead, it is natu- 
ral that it should become the supreme cere- 
monial observance of Korean life. When 
death occurs in a house, a pause of one or 
two hours takes place, in order to see 
whether the dead will revive again. When 
assured that death has taken place, the 
funeral rites begin with a ceremony known 
as ''Calling the Soul." A carpet of new 
cotton cloth is laid from the dead body 
across the room and outside of the house. 
Then some one takes a garment, and going 
out of the house waves it in the air, call- 
ing on the departed one to come back. 
After this is done, a table containing a sac- 
rificial offering to the spirits who have 
come for the dead is placed outside the 
door. On this table are placed three bowls 
of rice for the three great spirits, and one 
large bowl of rice for his attendants. In 
the case of the death of a woman, nine sets 
of chop-sticks are placed in the large bowl 
of rice, and in the case of a man twelve 



44 Korea 

sets. About the table are placed nine or 
twelve sets of straw sandles, these being 
the number of attendants respectively in 
the case of a woman or of a man. On the 
table containing the rice there will also be 
a large squash. 

The body is then prepared for burial by 
being washed and tightly bound in grass 
cloth, until it reminds one of the mummies 
of Egypt. Here, too, the numerals nine 
and twelve are observed, women being 
bound with nine layers of grass cloth and 
men with twelve. The date of the funeral 
will be determined by the social grade of 
the deceased. Men of the lower classes are 
not buried until three days after death ; 
middle classes, nine days; the nobility, one 
hundred days ; and in the case of an Im- 
perial personage, not until after nine 
months. This is the theoretical rule, but 
the observance of it varies somewhat. The 
coffin is a rude but strong pine structure. 
Great attention is paid to the selection of 
the grave site, there being a special class 
of geomancers, who make this their busi- 
ness. Most Korean families possess their 
own grave sites or cemeteries, in each case 



Life and Customs 45 

some special mountain being selected for 
this purpose from among the landed pos- 
sessions of the clan. As a rule, it is stipu- 
lated that there should be a stream of run- 
ning water near the grave site, it should 
face south if possible, and be in view of 
some famous mountain. The Koreans are 
extremely sensitive of any intrusion into 
their burial grounds. Many of the feuds 
of the land have grown out of fights over 
the possession of grave sites, for it is be- 
lieved that the geomantic influences which 
emanate from these sites are sufficient, in 
case of a good selection, to secure fortune, 
high position, posterity, and all the other 
things in the catalogue of Korean bless- 
ings ; or, in the case of a bad selection, to 
entail terrible calamities. Some writer has 
facetiously said that the favorite occupa- 
tion of the Koreans is fighting over grave 
sites. It is a fact that the habitations of 
the dead occupy more beautiful positions 
and are more conspicuously present on the 
scenery than the habitations of the living. 
A journey in the inhabited parts of Korea 
resembles a trip through a vast cem- 
etery. 



46 Korea 

On the day of the funeral the body is 
carried in a gaudy hearse or bier, borne 
high on the shoulders of twelve bearers to 
its last resting place. Standing on the plat- 
form in front of the hearse is a man ring- 
ing a bell. The bearers sing a wailing song 
as they proceed on their way, in some sec- 
tions of the country dancing and making 
short spurts of speed with the hearse. 
Wine and food mark the festivities. The 
sons and male relatives, with many of the 
female relatives, follow the corpse to the 
grave and see it properly interred. 

The son and those nearest to the dead 

must wear mourning garments of a white 

or dull sack cloth color for three 

ourning y^^j.^^ duriug which period they 
go about the streets with a long coat of 
sack cloth, confined at the waist with a 
hempen rope girdle, a large bushel basket 
hat with scalloped edges over their heads, 
and a small hand banner to conceal the 
face. The period of mourning varies with 
the degree of relationship, but whateven 
this may be, it is strictly observed by the 
Korean. All graves are circular in shape, 
in obedience to the dictum of Confucius, 



Life and Customs 47 

Sacrifices of various kinds are offered at 
time of interment and at other specified 
times at the grave, but the main worship of 
the dead takes place before the ancestral 
tablet, consisting of a curiously constructed 
piece of wood taken from the eastern 
branch of a chestnut tree. This tablet con- 
sists of two strips of wood fitted closely 
together, and on the inside is inscribed the 
name and deified titles of the dead. There 
is a small hole drilled in the top, through 
which the spirit of the dead is thought to 
enter. To this tablet, which is preserved 
at the residence of the deceased, an offering 
of rice and foodstuffs is made each month, 
and on the anniversary of the death for 
three years. Tablets are maintained for 
the dead for five generations. The duty of 
the sixth generation from any dead ances- 
tor is to carry his tablet with all the cere- 
mony of a funeral and reverently bury it 
beside the grave of the man whom it rep- 
resents. The rites attending the interment 
and worship of the dead are based on the 
idea that man has three souls. After death 
one remains at the grave, one inhabits the 
tablet, and one goes on to its destiny. 



48 Korea 

These various ceremonies to the dead oc- 
cupy a very large part of the Korean's time 
and thought, while the demands upon his 
material resources in connection with them 
often reduce the individual Korean to beg- 
gary. 



CHAPTER HI. 
The: Nativi: Ri:i.igions. 

Th^ Korean is a religious man. He is 
no atheist. It might be said of him as 
Paul said of the Athenians of old, he is 
vejx religious, for he finds gods every- 
where. All nature is animate with them. 
He has a dim conception of continued ex- 
istence after death, as his worship of the 
dead clearly indicates. He has moral 
values, and for generations the chief occu- 
pation of the thinking class has been to 
philosophize about ethics. Korea is rich 
in its religious phenomena, for we find ex- 
isting side by side with the most highly de- 
veloped forms of national religion in Con- 
fucianism, survivals of savage religion, 
such as the belief in ghosts and the fear 
of the powers of nature. 

The most universal belief among the 
Koreans is that of spirit worship, of Anim- 
ism. The sky, thunder, trees, mountains, 
4 49 



50 Korea 

and the tiger are regarded as gods, and 
worshiped and feared by the heathen man 
g j^j^ because of their supposed relation 
Worship to his own welfare. From the sky 
comes rain, upon which depends the suc- 
cess of his crops; thunder is the voice of 
divine anger against him ; the trees afford 
him shelter, and the tiger is stronger 
than he. 

There is another large class of objects 
worshiped by the Korean, not for any spe- 
cial worth in themselves, but because he 
has made them by his own power to become 
inhabited by spirits. This cult of fetishism 
includes the household gods and the gods 
of every-day life. When a Korean erects 
a house, he must first recognize the pro- 
prietorship of a spirit which he believes 
to occupy the land upon which he builds, 
so with great ceremony and sacrifice he in- 
stalls in his house, as the representative of 
this spirit, a sheet of paper or a piece of 
cloth, attached to the main beam that sup- 
ports the roof. After being installed by 
these rites, this piece of paper or roll of 
cloth becomes sacred, and the Korean lives 
in constant fear of it. In eating his meal 



The Native Religions 51 

in the room where it is enshrined, he is 
careful not to turn his back upon it. When 
sickness overtakes him or any member of 
his family, his first thought is that it is due 
to the anger of this spirit, and before medi- 
cine is taken or a physician is consulted, 
sacrifice is offered to the spirit to propitiate 
its anger. There are several other spirits 
connected with the household life of the 
Koreans, such as the earth-lord, the god 
of luck, the god of life, the kitchen god. 
These are represented by a booth of straw, 
a black earthen crock, a small bag of rice, 
a fish head, or various articles of clothing. 
As these several gods are enshrined in 
every house, they outnumber the inhabit- 
ants. There are more gods than people in 
Korea. 

The name of these spirits is legion. To 
the Korean mind they exist everywhere, 
in earth, in sky and sea. They haunt the 
trees, they play in the ravines, they dance 
by every crystal spring, and perch on every 
mountain crest. On green hillslopes, in 
peaceful agricultural valleys, in grassy 
dells, on wooded uplands, by lake and 
stream, by road and river, in north, south, 



52 Korea 

east and west, at the center, they abound, 
making sport of human destiny and driv- 
ing man mad with fear. They are on every 
roof, ceiHng, and fireplace. They fill the 
chimney, shed, and kitchen. They waylay 
the traveler as he leaves his home for a 
journey. They are beside him, behind him^ 
in front of him, over him, and beneath him. 
They touch him at every point of his life, 
preside at his birth, follow him to the grave, 
and dance on it when he is buried. They 
are hard masters, punishing every slip that 
he makes with merciless severity, and are 
the cause of all ill-fortune and disease. In 
fact, some of the diseases have been deified, 
and smallpox is a god in Korea. 

This vast spiritism, which is really a 
travesty on the ubiquity of the true God, is 
Sooth- pi*esided over by a priesthood, di- 
sayers vidcd iuto two classcs. In the 
first class are the soothsayers, who by the 
use of magic rites secure control over a 
spiritual familiar, by the aid of which they 
are able to seize the spirits that bring sick- 
ness, drag them from the afflicted person, 
and make him well. These soothsayers, 
usually blind men, become quite skilled in 



The Native Religions 53 

divination, fortune-telling, and other fea- 
tures of their craft, and make a good living 
thereby. To this class also belong the 
geomancers, who know the folklore con- 
cerning the topography of the land, the 
spiritual influences emanating from it, and 
their bearing on the future of the indi- 
vidual. The second division of this priest- 

5^^, hood is made up of Mudangs, the 
ceresses sorccrcsscs or priestesscs of this 
vast cult. They are supposed themselves 
to be possessed of a spirit, and thus quali- 
fied to perform certain rites, consisting of 
a sacrifice attended by music, during which 
the priestess dances until she reaches a 
frenzy, when her utterances become orac- 
ular. She is supposed to be able, by means 
of the sacrifice she offers, to exorcise the 
spirit afflicting a man with sickness or ill- 
fortune, and to restore friendly relations. 
These Mudangs have been in the past very 
numerous, and like their brothers appear 
to enjoy considerable material prosperity. 

If the Korean Emperor were asked con- 
cerning the religious faith of his people, he 
would answer that the educated men ob- 
serve and practice the teachings of Con- 



54 Korea 

fuclus. And probably every other Korean 
would give the same answer. Confucian- 

Q^^_ ism is the religion of the Imperial 
fucianism House, and so is the State cult. 
Introduced from China centuries ago, it 
has molded and shaped the life of the na- 
tion, until there is hardly an institution 
among the people that has not been af- 
fected by it. The government is organ- 
ized on a Confucian model, and one must 
be a Confucian to hold government office, 
though in the case of Christians this law 
is now a dead letter. The moral standards 
upon which the laws of the land are based 
are Confucian, and certain infractions of 
the moral code may be punished by invok- 
ing the secular arm of the government. As 
previously indicated, education consists in 
the mastery of Confucian philosophy. Eti- 
quette is instinct with Confucian ideals 
and the Confucian spirit. The whole social 
economy is erected on a Confucian foun- 
dation. The morals of the people are Con- 
fucian morals. Confucius is as much the 
sage of Korea to-day as he is the sage of 
China. 

Korean Confucianism recognizes four 



The Native Religions 55 

domains subject to moral control. These 
are : ( i ) the personal life of the individual ; 
(2) the family; (3) the nation or state; 
(4) the universe as far as man is related 
to it. The destiny and end of each of these 
is to be achieved by certain means. The 
individual will reach his destiny through 
sincerity, the family through filial piety, 
the nation through orderly administration, 
and the world through peace. Sincerity, 
filial piety, orderly administration, and uni- 
versal peace stand related in a vital pro- 
gression. The Korean Confucianist argues 
that without sincerity in the individual there 
can be no filial piety in the family, and 
without filial piety in the family there can 
be no orderly administration, and without 
orderly administration there can be no uni- 
versal peace. 

Confucian worship consists of that oi 
the sage himself, which is a public and offi- 
cial function, and that of the in- 
Worship of dividuars own ancestors, which 

Uontucius , . . . - . 

IS a private religious function. 
The sage is worshiped under the title of 
"The most complete and perfect Sage, the 
accomplished and perspicacious king." 



Sfi Korea 

This IS the divine title conferred upon Con- 
fucius by one of the emperors of the Mon- 
gol dynasty in China six hundred years 
ago, and adopted by the Koreans, their re- 
lations with the Mongols having been very 
intimate at that time. The official worship 
of the sage is much like that of China. 
The chief temple is at the capital, Seoul, 
and sacrifice is offered there by the Em- 
peror, either in person or by his deputy. 
There is a Confucian temple in the official 
establishment of each provincial governor 
and prefect, the rites being celebrated by 
the governor or magistrate, assisted by the 
local literati. These sacrifices to the sage 
occur in the second moon in the spring, 
and in the eighth moon in the autumn, 
and are occasions of great public and cere- 
monial importance. No statue or picture 
of Confucius is found in these temples, he 
being represented by a tablet, with rows 
of tablets to his most distinguished dis- 
ciples extending on both sides of the temple 
walls. Among them are tablets to several 
Korean scholars who have been deemed 
worthy to share in the worship of their 
teacher. Canonization in the Confucian 



The Native Religions 57 

temple is the pinnacle of fame to which 
a Korean may aspire, and is rarely be- 
stowed. 

The ceremonies in these temples are very 
highly organized. There is no separate 
and distinct priesthood, the officials in 
charge of the worship being appointed by 
the head official or elected by the local 
scholars. These men are charged with the 
duties of intoning prayers and presenting 
sacrifices, the latter consisting of slaugh- 
tered bulls, sheep, or pigs, with rice, fruits, 
rice-wine, and other products of the land. 
The singing of hymns and preaching are 
not part of the service, which is restricted 
to worship and homage. None but the 
literati are permitted to be present, mem- 
bers of the pariah classes and slaves being 
excluded. 

The worship of ancestors is universal 
throughout Korea, and is regarded as the 

foundation stone of all morality. 
Worship of Death in its most cruel form is 

prescribed by law of the land 
against all who destroy the tablets to their 
ancestors and give up the worship of the 
dead. It is at this point that the Christian 



58 Korea 

propaganda formerly came in collision 
most seriously with the customs and habits 
of the people. Some of the first Christians 
under the propaganda of the Roman Cath- 
olic Church were executed for this offense, 
and the opening year of the nineteenth 
century is marked by the promulgation of 
a law proclaiming death against all Chris- 
tians because of their sacrilegious immoral- 
ity in forsaking the worship of the dead. 
That law to-day is a dead letter, though in 
the early days of evangelical missions in 
Korea the Gospel was preached with the 
knowledge that any Korean who accepted 
the faith thereby incurred the penalty of 
death. The shrines containing the tablets 
to the dead vary from a small boxlike 
structure that can be kept on a shelf, to 
an elaborate pavilion built in connection 
with the house of the worshiper, either at 
Seoul or in the country. Among the lower 
classes, instead of a tablet the name and 
titles of the dead are written on a sheet 
of paper hung on the walls during the sac- 
rifice, and afterward taken down and 
burned or buried. 

The clan organization, which is very 



The Native Religions 59 

strong in Korea, centers around the wor- 
ship of the dead. The maintenance of the 
clan sacrifice to the dead ancestors 
^" is a first charge upon the estates 
held by the various members of the clan. 
The chief custodian of the ancestral shrine, 
and the one upon whom it is obligatory to 
maintain the sacrifices at the shrine, is the 
eldest son. Precedence going by seniority, 
the eldest son becomes the federal head of 
the clan, and in spiritual, political, social, 
and business matters his word is binding. 
Thus the conversion to Christianity of an 
eldest son involves serious problems, unless 
the other members of the clan consent to 
it. In a religious sense it means the loss 
of the head of the family, causing them to 
present an imperfect line whenever appear- 
ing before the spirits of their ancestors. 
He also carries with him the control of 
the ancestral estates, and unless he con- 
sents to some arrangement the sacrifices 
at the ancestral shrine must cease. This 
gives a shock to the religious conscious- 
ness of the Koreans, which it is difficult 
for those who live in Christian lands to 
fully appreciate. It is no easy matter for 



60 Korea 

a Korean to become a Christian, and he 
often pays a heavy price for the privileges. 
But be it said to the honor of the many 
Koreans who have embraced Christianity, 
that they have gladly resigned all temporal 
benefits of their position in the clan, taking 
joyfully the despoiling of their goods and 
often suffering personal violence in testi- 
mony to the genuineness of their conver- 
sion. 

Buddhism, the great cult o£ India, was 
introduced into Korea in the fourth cen- 
tury of the Christian era by way 
ism ^£ China. At first it had a check- 
ered career, but soon secured a foothold 
among the people in the southern part of 
Korea, and gradually spread throughout 
the empire, until at one time it was the 
dominant religious faith of the nation. It 
built its monasteries all over the land, 
erected many monuments the ruins of 
which may be seen to-day, reshaped the 
religious, social, and political economies of 
the people to its own peculiar genius, and 
accumulated great wealth. Its priesthood 
had the monopoly of education and learn- 
ing, and were the councilors and guides 



The Native Religions 61 

of the people. After centuries of unlimited 
sway, it met its check in mid career through 
a too greedy grasping after political power. 
The Buddhist priesthood, once tmdoubtedly 
a learned and austere body, became cor- 
rupted through prosperity. The rules 
which governed the lives of the priesthood 
were violated with impunity. Monks and 
abbots took to warfare as readily as did 
the warring Christian bishops of the middle 
ages. In the palace they became all power- 
ful, even casting some of the kings into the 
shadow with their magnificence. They de- 
bauched the people, and their abominations 
beggar description. The monasteries be- 
came pleasure houses, and the nunneries 
little better than brothels. The people rose 
in revolt, the power of the priesthood was 
broken, and Buddhism went down with the 
overthrow of the last dynasty, for the ruin 
of which its leaders were largely responsible. 
The status of this faith in Korea to-day 
is clearly indicated by the saying that Bud- 
dhism to be found must be sought. Many 
monasteries still dot the land, but they are 
located deep in the recesses of the moun- 
tains and situated far from the inhabited 



62 Korea 

villages. Often there will be but one monk 
in these retreats, eking out a precarious 
livelihood ofif the monastery lands and such 
alms as he can collect on his itineraries 
among the people. A careful observance at 
one of these monasteries for four months 
showed that less than thirty persons visited 
the place during that entire period, and 
among these there was not one man. 

The Buddhist hierarchy, though deficient 

in numbers and burdened with debt and 

poverty, is still strongly organ- 

Buddhist j^ed. Many of the monasteries 

Hierarchy . -^ . ^ . - 

receive government aid. Outside 
the priesthood and nuns, it is rare one 
meets a genuine Buddhist devotee. The 
Korean idea of becoming a Buddhist en- 
tails entrance into the priesthood. Many 
of its superstitions and practices, however, 
still prevail among the people, and though 
as a religion its grasp over them has been 
broken, as a philosophy it permeates many 
of their views. The priesthood is recruited 
from orphans and children committed to 
the care of the monks. They are brought 
up in the monastery, and as a rule possesss 
little education. It is difficult to discover 



The Native Religions 63 

among them a man who has any conception 
of the real tenets of Buddhism. This is due 
to several causes, chief among which is the 
fact that the Buddhist priests are ranked 
with the pariah class of the land. 
D ,. . The religious life of the Ko- 

Keligious ^ 

Character- rcan pcople shows no testimony 

istics ^^^^ 

"The consciousness of sins forgiven, 
Of wrath appeased, of heavy guilt thrown off, 
Sheds on the heart its long forgotten peace, 
And shining steadfast as the noonday sun, 
Lights man along the path that duty marks." 

In presenting the claims of the Christian 
faith to themi, the missionary needs great 
tact. Many of the tenderest relations of 
life, the deepest emotions of the human 
heart center about the Korean's religious 
life, and he who would play the swash- 
buckler among them attempting to force 
the human soul against its cherished be- 
liefs, would find himself tilting with a straw 
against a champion cased in adamant. The 
Christian propaganda in Korea has been 
free from such characteristics. The mis- 
sionaries as a body have been distinguished 
for tact, courtesy, and kindly consideration 



64 Korea 

in all their . dealings with the religious life 
of the people, and to this must be attrib- 
uted some of the popularity of the Chris- 
tian faith in this land. 

Many of the religious characteristics of 
the Korean people mark them for disciple- 
ship in the Christian faith. Believing as 
they do in the universal presence of spirits, 
it is not difficult for them to accept the doc- 
trines of the spiritual nature of God. Con- 
fucianism with its age-long insistence on 
the fact that man is a moral being and must 
obey moral laws, prepares them to sincerely 
exemplify Christian ethics in their life. 
Even though some writers go so far as to 
believe the Korean's religious life under 
paganism a journey on the river of error 
to an ocean of darkness and despair, yet 
it is true that this whole experience but fits 
him the more readily to follow Christian 
guides who would lead him to the river of 
life, flowing hard by the throne of God. 
The very willingness of the Koreans to 
offer a costly service to pagan gods, be- 
comes transformed into a free, unreserved, 
full-hearted love to God and service to their 
fellow-men. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The: Founding o^ th^ Mission. 

Whi:n the history of the conquest of 

the world for Christ is written, not the 

^ , least fascinating book in it will 

K.orea s i . i 11 i <- 

First be that which tells the story of 
Embassy ^j^^ winning of the Korean Em- 
pire. In the early years of the last quarter 
of the nineteenth century influences began 
to work in Korea among the younger mem- 
bers of the nobility, looking toward a modi- 
fication of the old policy of seclusion and 
the beginning of neighborly relations with 
other nations. The visit of Admiral Shu- 
felt, and the negotiation of the American 
treaty in^i88i, gave a support for the more 
progressive in the government, and an em- 
bassy was organized and sent to the United 
States in 1883. Dr. John F. Goucher, of 
Baltimore, one of the distinguished min- 
isters of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
was thrown into the company of this em- 
S " 65 



66 Korea 

bassy on its way across the continent, and 

learning the conditions and opportunities 

in Korea, made a very substantial 

Call for a proposition to the Mission Board 

Mission f 51 -XT ^ r 1 . r 

m New York for the opening of 
mission work in that empire. Previously 
to this, Dr. James M. Buckley, editor of 
the Christian Advocate, being impressed 
with the need and opportunities for Chris- 
tian work in Korea, published in his issue 
of January 3, 1883, an editorial citing the 
conditions and urging the opening of a 
mission. During that year the Advocate 
contained no less than fifteen articles relat- 
ing to Korea, and in response various^gifts 
were forwarded to the Board for the open- 
ing of mission work there, among them 
being a gift from Mr. J. Slocum, of Iowa, 
of one thousand dollars ; an unnamed donor, 
one thousand dollars, and a gift of nine 
dollars from a little girl nine years old in 
CaHfornia. These were added to Dr. 
Goucher's gift, and the opening of the mis- 
sion was made possible. 

At that time Korea was a closed nation. 
The slaughter of the Roman Catholics in 
1866, in which it is said ten thousand 



The Founding of the Mission 67 

Koreans perished, was still fresh in the 
minds of all familiar with Korea, and the 
laws and edicts prohibiting Christianity 
were still in force. Undeterred by these 
conditions. Dr. (now Bishop) C. H. Fow^ 
ler, then corresponding secretary of the 
Missionary Society, pressed upon the mis- 
sionary authorities the project, and at the 
meeting of the General Missionary Com- 
mittee, in 1883, the mission was formally 
decided upon. Dr. R. S. Maclay, super- 
intendent of the mission in Japan, was des- 
ignated to yisit Korea and make arrange- 
ments for a mission. He arrived 
^KorTa?^ at Seoul in June, 1883. hI^wIs 
Emperor the first Protcstaut missionary 
designated by any Evangelical 
Church to reach Korea. General Foote, 
the United States Mmister, presented to 
the government a statement of the object 
of the proposed mission, and His Majesty 
the Emp^i^or was graciously pleased, to ap- 
prove the project^ and suggested that work 
along medical and educational lines would 
be acceptable. Dr. Maclay then returned 
to Japan. In Septeinber, 1883, Dr. Horace 
N. Allen, designated by the Presbyterian 



68 Korea 

Board to open a -mission, arrived in Korea, 
and became the first resident missionary in 
that land. It is impossible to adequately 
characterize the work of Dr. Allen in 
Korea. For many years, both as a mis-., 
sionary and as the representative of the 
United States Government, he rendered 
services of immense value, and deservedly 
ranks as the pioneer among the founders 
of Christ's kingdom in that land. Acting 
on the report of Dr. Maclay, the Board of ^ 
_ ^ Missions of the Methodist Epis- 

Ihe First - i >hi 

Mission- copal Church selected ;two mis- 
^^'^^ sionaries, William B.(Scranton, a 
graduate of Yale University and of the 
College of Physicians and Surgeons in New 
York, and Henry Gerhardt Appenzellerj, 
a graduate of Franklin and Marshall C0I7 
lege, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and of Drew 
Theological Seminary, to proceed to Korea 
and open the mission. Dr. Scranton was 
ordained to the ministry of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church by Bishop Fowler in 
New York, December, 188^, at which time 
an emeute was taking place in the city of 
Seoul, organized by the progressive wing 
against the Conservative members of the 



The Founding of the Mission 69 

embassy, whose very coming to the United 
States in 1883 had led to the opening of 
a mission in Korea. Sjeyeral of the merg-. 
bers of the Korean Government in Seoul 
were killed^ but the triumph of the Pro- 
gressives was short, lasting but three days, 
when they were dislodged from the palace 
by Chinese commanded by Yuan Shi-kai, 
now the successor of Li Hung Chang, the 
metropolitan viceroy of China, but then 
a major of the Chinese troops in Korea. 
The overthrow of the Progressives, and the 
march of the Japanese who had assisted 
them with the little band of Korean re- 
formers out of the city of Seoul to Che- 
mulpo, constitute one of the most thrill- 
ing episodes of recent history in the Far 
East. With the overthrow of the Progress- 
ives the hand on the dial of Korean oppor- 
tunity was set back, and recent history in- 
dicates that the death blow was adminis- 
tered to all Korean hope of political better- 
ment. 

Unconscious of the bloody events taking 
place at Seoul, the missionaries proceeded 
on their way, the party consisting of Mr. 
and Mrs. Appenzelier, Dr. and Mrs. Scran- 



70 Korea 

ton, and Mrs. M. F. Scranton, mother of 

Dr. Scranton, who went out to take up the 

... work of the Woman's Foreign 

Arrival in . ^ - „_ — :__ 

Korea Missionary bociety m Korea. 

1885 They sailed from San Francisco 
in February, 1885, for their distant field, 
reaching Chemulpo on Easter Sunday, April 
5th. The difficulties and problems which 
confronted them were enormous. So peril- 
ous were the times, and so uncertain was 
the status of all foreigners in Korea, that 
their coming was regarded by unsympa- 
thetic foreigners as most inopportune, and 
few had any encouraging words to offer 
them in their mission. With undaunted 
spirits and admirable skill and determin- 
ation they began their work. They had no 
place in which to live and no knowledge of 
the language, and the outlook was not en- 
couraging. They located in the capital, 
Seoul, and succeeded in securing a mission 
property, which has admirably served the 
purposes of the Church. They laid broad 
and far-reaching plans to occupy not only 
the capital, but the entire country. In 
1886 they issued a call for twojn^wmen to 
occupy Chemulpo and Fusan^ and George 



The Founding of the Mission 71 

Heber X*??^^?;.. ^^ ^^^^ Northern New York 
Conference, was appointed in 1887 to join 
_ _. . the mission, and Franldin Oh- 

rirst Rein- . . --.---^ 

forcements hnger, a Veteran missionary m 
^^^^ China, was transferred to Korea. 
In 1889, Dr. W. B. McGill was added to 
the mission, while the work of the Woman's 
Foreign Missionary Society was reinforced 
by the arrival of Miss Louisa C. Roth- 
weiler and of Dr. Meta Howard. No one 
has yet told the story of those first years of 
loneliness, anxiety, and danger. The mis- 
_ . sionaries had not only to run the 

rounding r i i m* r 

of the gauntlet of the hostility of men, 
Mission b^^ there was danger from dis- 
ease. The mission had hardl3r3ee^ jn^^the 
country a year when Asiatic cholera broke' 
out, and multitudes fell before its terrible 
power. The gates of the city of Seoul were 
never closed to allow the unending proces- 
sion of dead to pass out, while the sick and 
dying were abandoned along the roads and 
upon the city wall. Dr. Scrantgn, whose 
hosgital had been recognized by the Em- 
peror, who conferred on it an Official Sign 
Board and the title Si-pyung Won, and 
was already in successful operation, minis- 



72 Korea 

tered through all those dark and terrible 
days to the stricken people, with a conse- 
Medical ^ration which won not only for 
Work himself the lasting gratitude of the 
many Koreans to whom he brought relief, 
but acted as a most effective agent in re- 
moving prejudice and opening the way for 
the mission. Thus was begun the medical 
work of the mission, which extended as 
years passed to other parts of the empire. 
This work under Dr. Scranton, and later 
under Drs. McGill, Hall, Busteed, Follwell, 
and Sherman of the Parent Board, and 
Drs. Meta Howard, Rosetta Sherwood 
(now Mrs. Hall), Mary M. Cutler, Lillian 
Harris, and Emma Ernsberger of the 
Women's Board, has done large service for 
the Lord in Korea. Probably not less than 
four hundred thousand patients have been 
received and treated by these physicians 
since the mission was founded in _i885. 
Among the most honorable achievements of 
the medical work of the mission has been 
that of producing the first foreign trained 
physician in an empire of twelve million 
people, and this event has a double signifi- 
cance from the fact that the physician thus 



The Founding of the Mission 73 

trained was a woman, Mrs. Esther Kim 
Pak. Di\_Pak began her education in the 
Mission Girls' School at Seoul. She acted 
as assistant in the hospital and, manifesting 
abilities and tastes for the medical work, 
was brought to America by Airs. Hall, w^ho 
with a courage and devotion that was most 
admirable, aided Dr. Pak to secure her 
medical education. After graduating from 
Johns Hopkins Medical School, Dr. Pak 
returned to Korea, and has labored am.ong 
her own people as a medical missionary. 
The physicians have suffered heavily in 
their efforts to win Korea for Christ, four 
cut of the eleven medical members of the 
mission having died. Dr. W. J. Hall and 
Dr. Lillian Harris sleep beneath the sod in 
Korea, the one on the banks of the Han, 
near the capital, and the other on the Tai- 
dong, near Pyeng Yang. Dr. Busteed and 
Dr. Sherman left Korea incapacitated for 
work, and died after reaching America. 

In spite of the difficulties which sur- 
rounded the mission, Mr. Appenzeller, while 
grappling with the language, opened a 
school for boys, thus laying the foundation 
of Christian education in Korea. The em- 



74 Korea 

peror became interested in this school, and 
conferred on it the name of 'Tjj-cJia| HaJc;^ 

Education- t^^g'" H^ll fo^ *^ Training of 
al Work Useful Men, at the same time that 
he recognized the hospital. This was writ- 
ten on a blue official tablet and placed over 
the main gate to the School Compound, 
indicating that the place enjoyed official 
patronage. Hundreds of Korean boys have 
secured a start in education in this school, 
and the Hall for the Training of Useful 
Men is known from one end of the empire 
to the other. The educational work in 
Korea has been necessarily handicapped by 
the lack of all practical text-books in the 
Korean language. Instruction has there- 
fore been largely through the medium of 
the English language, though some atten- 
tion is being paid to the organization of 
proper courses of study in the Korean 
tongue and the preparation of text-books. 
This school is the first on a modern basis 
ever started in the empire, and has main- 
tained for Christian workers the leader- 
ship in education in Korea. In addition to 
the many students it has helped, one of its 
noteworthy by-products has been the l^h^.^ 



The Founding of the Mission 75 

liaUin^^house^ which to-day is the fountain- 
head of a flood of pure, helpful, and elevat- 
ing Christian literature, which has gone 
into every region of the empire and been 
a right arm of strength to missions in 
Korea, enabling them to reach through 
books, tracts, and the Scriptures printed on 
its presses a large part of the inhabitants 
of the land. The first one to start the 
press was Rev. Franklin. Ohlinger, who 
met with insurmountable difficulties, but 
with skill and indomitable purpose brought 
the press safely through the earlier years. 
He was succeeded in the management 
by W. Arthur Noble, George C. Cobb, 
H. B. Hulbert, and D. A. Bunker. The 
present manager is S. A. Beck, who de- 
servedly enjoys the confidence of the mis- 
sionary community. 

Besides being the founder of the first 
modern school in Korea, and exercising a 
potent influence on the education 
Appen- ' of the land, Mr. Appenzeller,'s ac- 
zeller tivitics were most varied and use- 
ful. He had a large capacity for work. 
He served as superintendent of the mission 
from 1886 until his furlough in 1892. He 



76 Korea 

baptized the first Korean woman to enter 
tKe Evangelical Church, organized the first 
Christian Church in the empire, traveled 
and preached in every province in that 
country, and was known by name through- 
out the land. He served until his death as 
one of the translators of the Scriptures into 
the Korean language, and as one of the 
editors of the Korean Repository has made 
a lasting contribution to the literature re- 
lating to Korea. One of the founders of 
Christ's kingdom in Korea, he united to 
a noble manhood talents and excellencies 
which place him among the foremost mis- 
sionaries of the Christian Church. He lost 
his life in the sinking of the steamer 
Kumagawa on the night of June ii, 1902, 
going down with two Korean friends, his 
Korean secretary and a little Korean girl 
whom he was taking to her home. He 
sleeps at the bottom of old ocean until that 
great day when, at the voice of Christ, the 
sea will give up its dead, and Henry G. 
.Appenzeller will appear with his Korean 
friends in the presence of his Master and 
receive the reward of the faithful. 
The Woman's Foreign Missionary So- 



The Founding of the Mission 77 

ciety was particularly fortunate in its 
founder, Mrs. M. F. Scranton. She 
brought to her great work quick 
For^rgn^ perception, tact, and patience, a 
Missionary Splendid prescucc, a matured 
ociety j|;i(jgi-Qent, and a deep and un- 
changing sympathy and love for the Ko- 
reans. The work was slow at first, and 
many difficulties and prejudices had to be 
met and overcome, but it was heroically 
executed. A Girls' School was founded, 
being the first ever opened in the Empire 
of Korea. The Emperor was pleased to 
confer on this school an official sign board 
with the title, Ewa Hak-tang, or the Pear 
Flower School, which name it still bears. 
It has a noble corps of teachers, and is vin- 
dicating the right of Korean women to be 
educated. Under the guidance, first of 
Mrs. M. F. Scranton, and later of the 
Misses Louisa C. Rothv/eiler and Margaret 
J. Bengel (now Mrs. Heber Jones), Ger- 
man Methodism's gift to Korea, Mary 
Harris (now Mrs. Follwell), J. O. Paine, 
Lulu E. Frey, Nellie Pierce (now Mrs. 
Hugh Miller), and Mary R. Hillman, it 
has afforded many Korean girls their only 



78 Korea 

education. We have already alluded to 
the medical work done for the women of 
Korea. Mention should also be made of 
the school for nurses under Miss Edmunds, 
a much needed institution with a great field 
before it. The ladies have kept full step 
with the male members of the mission in 
evangelistic work, and have homes at Che- 
mulpo and Pyeng Yang, where evangelistic 
workers reside, as well as at Seoul. The 
home at Chemulpo was made possible by 
the generous thought and provision of Mrs. 
F. N. Gamble, of Cincinnati, whose loving 
care has made possible larger usefulness 
and efficiency of the workers. No mention 
of the evangelistic work would be complete 
which failed to take notice of the work done 
by the wives of the missionaries, who con- 
stitute a corps of self-sacrificing and de- 
voted laborers for the womanhood of 
Korea. 



CHAPTER V. 

Expansion oi^ the: Mission. 

The founding of a mission in a newly 
opened empire involves a great amount 
_ I ^ of work. The land must be trav- 

Period of 

Explora- eled and explored, and the strat- 
tion Qg[^ points selected where mission 
stations may be located. During the first 
seven years Seoul was the only mission 
station. Residence in the interior was pro- 
hibited by treaty, and though the author- 
ities were very friendly, it was not thought 
wise to jeopardize the standing of the mis- 
sionaries in Korea by attempting to force 
a residence at interior points. But had the 
land been open to occupation, the smallness 
of the mission staff and the lack of ade- 
quate support from the Church in America 
would have rendered the opening of new 
mission stations impracticable. The mis- 
79 



80 Korea 

sionaries, therefore, were able to devote 
themselves the more closely to the acquire- 
ment of the language, and became experts 
in its use. This has been characteristic of 
missionary work in Korea. All of the mis- 
sionaries of the various Churches use the 
language in their work, and some of them 
are counted masters of it. The work, how- 
ever, of mapping the land and preparing 
for the future was pressed vigorously from 
Seoul. The schools, hospitals, and women's 
work in that city gave the missionaries a 
favorable standing in the estimation of the 
people. Extensive trips were taken in the 
interior, the cities were visited and exam- 
ined, and an acquaintance made with the 
people. Many difficulties hampered this 
work. There were no conveniences such 
as exist to-day for travel. The inns were 
not worthy of the name. There was a deep 
and intense prejudice against foreigners, 
and real perils from men, wild animals, and 
the elements. These difficulties were met 
unflinchingly. Not only was the prejudice 
conquered and friendship established, but 
the journeys of the missionaries sowed the 
seed of Christianity far and wide, the sale 



Expansion of the Mission 81 

of Christian books helped to conserve the 
harvest, and the good reports circulated by 
patients in the hospital and students in the 
schools in Seoul prepared wide areas for 
the reception of the Christian faith. This 
may be called the period of exploration. 

The permanent advanc^e into the interior 

occurred in 1892, and stations vvere opened 

. , almost simultaneously ^tJNon^-sSin, 

Advance ,_. 

into the Chemulpo, and Pyeng Yang. The 
Interior y^^^ sclcctcd provcd to bc an un- 
propitious one. A great insurrectionary 
movement, called the Tong-hak uprising, 
was in its incipient stages. This insurrec- 
tion had for its w^ar-cry, ''Down with Eu- 
rope and Japan, and up with Korea," or in 
other words, Asia for the Asiatics. The 
missionaries were able to inaugurate the 
new policy of expansion, however, in a 
quiet way, which attracted little attention 
from the Koreans. Dr. McGill- was ap- 
pointed to begin work on the east coast at 
Won-san, Dr. Hall in the north at Pye4:ig. 
Yang, and Mr. Heber Jones to the work 
onthe west coast at Chemulpo. It was 
necessary to administer these fields at first 
from Seoul, the missionaries visiting their 
6 



82 Korea 

fields to prepare the way for the coming of 
their families. 

Dr. McGill began the medical work at 
Won-san, and treated three JTiou^^^ pa- 
tients in his dispensary the first 
year and sold two thousand tracts, 
which opened the way for Christian serv- 
ices, and in 1895 the Church at Won-san 
had fifteen converts. The missionary la- 
bored most earnestly throughout the region 
and pleaded for reinforcements. After re- 
peated but unsuccessful efforts to secure 
the necessary new men from America, the 
mission arranged to transfer the work at 
the Won-san station to the Mission of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, who 
now maintain at that point a most success- 
ful mission station. So fraternal and co- 
operative have been the relations between 
the two missions in Korea, that this action 
proved to be not the transfer of work to 
another mission, but an effective and ade- 
quate provision for that great field. 

The story of the opening of the work 
in the North reads like a chapter of Apos- 
tolic history. During the period of explo- 
ration, 1885-1892, the missionaries at Seoul 



Expansion of the Mission 83 

made trips to that region, preached and dis- 
tributed books. A few probationers were 
P enc gathered at Pyeng Yang and in 
Yang Wi-ju on the Yalu, but it was 
impossible to care for and conserve the 
work at such a distance from the mission 
station at Seovil. Mr. Noble and Dr.JisAh 
made a trip through this territory ixuiSf^2, 
and thoroughly studied the whole situation 
there. Dr. Hall, appointed by Bishop .Malr. 
lalieu to open the mission station at Pyeng 
Yang, was splendidly fitted to be a pionger. 
missionary. Possessed of an attractive per- 
sonality, he charmed and won all with 
whom he came in contact; fired by apos- 
tolic zeal and ambition, intense in his loy- 
alty, full of fervent and manly piety, and 
indomitable in purpose, he threw himself 
into his work with holy abandon. 

Pyeng Yang was already showing signs 
of hostility to Christianity, but Dr. Hall 
began his work in a heathen inn, occupy- 
ing a room only eight feet square, which 
served him as dispensary, waiting room, 
bookstore, and living room. Dr. Hall was 
marked by his faith in God and his power 
in prayer. He laid the whole situation be- 



84 Korea 

fore his Master and asked for help. He 
returned to Seoul, believing that God would 
open the way for him. Having charge of a 
class of children from the families of the 
missionaries in the capital, he told them of 
his experiences in Pyeng Yang, and asked 
them to join him in prayer that God would 
send the means to open a mission there. 
Before the week was over, three of these 
little children, Bertie and Willa Ohlinger, 
who now sleep in God's acre by the side of 
the River Han outside the city of Seoul, 
and Augusta Scranton, brought to him the 
major part of the little funds they had 
saved for their own purposes, and freely 
gave them to him, while their prayers went 
up in behalf of the mission in Pyeng Yang. 
Gifts from friends in America swelled the 
fund to $1,400, with which property was 
secured, and Dr. and Mrs. Hall took up 
their residence there. 

The antagonism of non-Christian people 
became intense, and they resorted to vio- 
lence. The Christians at this time were 
only a small and insignificant company. 
They were insulted, arrested by the offi- 
cials, and beaten and tortured. Then came 



Expansion of the Mission 85 

a revelation of the heroic build of Korean 
Christian character. The native assistant 
of the mission, Mr. Kim Chang-sik, was 
arrested with other Christians, and ordered 
to recant by the governor of the province. 
He was beaten, condemned to death, and 
placed in the stocks in the death cell to 
await execution; but he refused to recant, 
and willingly chose death. A higher power 
intervened, and before the fell purpose of 
the heathen governor could be executed, 
the diplomatic representatives at Seoul se- 
cured the release of Mr. Kim, and he was 
set free. He was pursued, however, from 
the gates of the prison by a howling mob, 
who stoned and very nearly killed him. 
To-day Mr. Kim is an honored pastor in 
the Korean Church, and was one of the 
first men to be ordained to the ministry. 
These things, however, were insufficient 
to daunt the missionaries, and they re- 
mained in the city until it fell into the 
hands of the Chinese, who wrought terrible 
havoc. These Chinese invaders robbed the 
people of their houses, rice, and rice ket- 
tles, and ravished the women. When the 
Japanese finally drove them out, the city 



86 Korea 

that once numbered eighty thousand popu- 
lation had only a few thousands left. In 
the arduous duties that followed the occu- 
pation of the city Dr. Hall contracted fever, 
from which he died in 1895, and he was 
added to the sacred dead of the mission 
who sleep in the cemetery by the river 
Han. Thus passed away a man of beau- 
tiful character and large promise, whose 
life, though cut down in the flower, em- 
braced so much usefulness and achieve- 
ment for his Lord and Master that, meas- 
ured by deeds and not by years, it encom- 
passes centuries. 

In J 896, Rev. W. Arthur Noble, whose 
administrative ability, quick sympathy, 
evangelistic zeal, and unswerving devotion 
to the highest Christian ideals eminently 
qualified him for the leadership, took 
charge of the work at Pyen^^Xang. The 
havoc wrought by the war was repaired, 
and a new and lasting impetus given to the 
work. A small church was erected, but 
such throngs came to the services that, once 
seated on the floor inside, the people were 
so wedged together it was impossible for 
them to rise to sing, while many were com- 



Expansion of the Mission 87 

pelled to listen from the outside. Multi- 
tudes were converted. At the end of the 
year the membership in the Church was 
two hundred and sixty-three, among them 
being Christians who walked thirty-five 
miles each Sabbath in order to attend Di- 
vine service. A splendid corps of native 
workers rallied around Mr. Noble, most of 
them being his own sons in the gospel. 
Schools were quickly opened for boys and 
girls. Dr. Follwell did splendid service by 
his medical skill, and both missionaries were 
admirably assisted by their wives, who laid 
deep and lasting foundations for the work 
among the women at that point. From the 
beginning the missionaries visited the sur- 
rounding towns and villages, and were tire- 
less in their efforts to reach the million and 
a half of people on their vast territory. A 
thousand miles a year on foot was the ordi- 
nary record. By the end of ^8g8 the sta- 
tion reported 529 members, with 29 preach- 
ing places. Eleven chapels were built in 
one year. In 190 1 the station became a 
presiding elder's district, with 1,700 Church 
members and as many inquirers. 

In 1905 a new presiding elder's district 



88 * Korea 

was carved out of the northern part of this 

work, with headquarters at Yeng-ben, and 

Rev. C. D. Morris, who joined 

eng- en ^^^ missiou in ,_ 1900, being sent 
out as the representative of the students of 
Drew^Theological Seminary, was appointed 
presiding elder. Associated with Dr. Foil- 
well, Mr. Noble, and Mr. Morris at the 
Pyeng Yang Station have been the Rev. 
John Z. Moore and Rev. Arthur Becker. 
After the death of her husband, Mrs. Ro- 
setta Sherwood Hall took charge of the 
medical work of the Woman's Foreign 
Missionary Society at Pyeng Yang, and 
was joined by Dr. Lillian Harris and Dr. 
Esther Kim Pak. Dr. Hall and Dr. Pak 
still carry on their work of healing among 
the women of the north. The evangelistic 
work of the Woman's Foreign Missionary 
Society has been under the efficient direc- 
tion of Miss Ethel M. Estey and Miss Hen- 
rietta P. Robbins. 

The growth of the work in the Chemulpo 
station has been sure and steady from the 
beginning. Mr. Heber Jones, appointed to 
open the station, began work in Chemulpo 
with three men invited in to the service 



Expansion of the Mission 89 

from the street. Soon two of them were 
converted, and they brought their famihes 
to Christ. Thus Christianity be- 
emu po g.^^ ^^ make an impression on the 
home life of the heathen city of Chemulpo. 
Some of the business men were converted, 
who in their own hearts fought out the 
question of Sabbath closing, and for the 
first time in the history of that city promi- 
nent shops on the main street were closed 
on the Sabbath-day, testifying in a power- 
ful way to the rule of God over the busi- 
ness life of the world. People from ad^ 
joining villages, visiting the city, were at- 
tracted to the chapel, became converted, 
and thus a foothold was secured in other 
towns. The solitary Church at Chemulpo 
became a circuit, with a number of charges 
on it. These were organized into a pre- 
siding elder's district in 1900, with a 
Church membership of over a thousand 
converts. The work am.ong the women 
was carried on by Mrs. Heber Jones alone 
and single-handed until 1901, w^hen Miss 
Mary R. Hillman was sent by the Woman's 
Foreign Missionary Society as their first 
representative in this district. This work 



90 Korea 

was very successful. She was joined in 
1902 by Miss Lulu Miller. These conse- 
crated women have wrought splendidly, 
building up the Christian lives of the 
womanhood of Korea through all the large 
area covered by the district. In^i902, Rev. 
Elmer 3L— £able, who joined the mission 
in 1889 and while teaching in the mission 
school at, Seoul had acquired a fine work- 
ing knowledge of the language, was ap- 
pointed to the district. Mr. Cable imme- 
diately entered upon a large field of useful- 
ness, and on the departure of Mr. Heber 
Jones for America in 190 A, was appointed 
presiding^ elder of the district. Under his 
leadership the work has grown to a great 
Church of nearly ten thousand members^ 
and as many more probationers and ad- 
herents. With his devoted wife he has 
traveled tirelessly, showing large forbear- 
ance, patience, and wisdom in meeting the 
problems inseparable from the founding of 
the Church in a heathen com- 
^""''^ munity. In 1903, Mr. Carl Crit- 
chett joined the district, and later removed 
to the northern section with his wife, open- 
ing a new mission station in Hai-ju, cap- 



Expansion of the Mission 91 

ital of the Whang-hai province, with a great 
flourishing work attached to it throughout 
that province with its population of a mil- 
lion souls. In 1905, Rev. Charles Deming, 
a member of the New York Conference, 
and a graduate of the University of New.^ 
York and of Drew Theological Seminary, 
and a missionary of splendid promise, 
joined the mission as the substitute of a 
prominent business man of New York City. 
How many business men there are who 
could do the sam.e thing not only in Korea, 
but in all mission fields, and bring relief 
to the sorely burdened missionaries, many 
of whom break down under the heavy strain 
of their incessant and unremitting labors. 

Seoul became the headquarters of a large 

and flourishing work in the region about 

the capital. Here was located the 

^^°"* mother Church of Korean Meth- 
odism, the First Church of Seoul, organ- 
ized by Mr. Appenz^eller and his missionary 
colleagues in 1889, and which at that time 
included in its membership all the Korean 
Christians of the mission in Korea. An- 
other great center was opened inside the 
South Gate of Seoul in 1893. This grew 



92 Korea 

out of the effective medical missionary 
work done by the doctors at Seoul. At 
first the services there were held for the 
patients attending the hospital. This be- 
came a Church in 1895. A commodious 
structure was erected for this Church in 
1900, by an elect lady of Stamford, Con- 
necticut, in memory of her mother, and is 
now known as the Mead Memorial Church. 
Located immediately within the South Gate 
of Seoul, it became the point of departure 
for work in the populous regions lying 
south of the capital. 

Seoul Station was reinforced in the 
spring of 1898 by Rev. W. C. Swearer, 
a member of the Pittsburg Con- 
ference. He was a -graduate of 
Allegheny College and of(Drew/Theolog- 
ical Seminary. After a few nionths' work 
as a teacher in Pai-chai school for boys, 
he was appointed to the Su-won and 
Kong-ju Circuit, lying south of Seoul. 
Although he had not yet secured the com- 
mand of the language, he began to travel 
extensively throughout the region, cover- 
ing hundreds of miles of territory as yet 
absolutely untouched by Christian teach- 



Expansion of the Mission 



93 



ing. He found here a promising field with 
two milHon souls in his parish, only about 
one hundred and fifty of whom had become 
Christians. His work called him through 
hundreds of villages where a European had 
never been seen. The people were a simple- 
minded country folk, given up to gross and 
debasing superstitions. They were igno- 
rant and illiterate, only about one in every 
four of the men and one in a hundred of 
the women being able to read. Though 
Buddhism had once had a powerful hold 
upon the masses of the people, it was prac- 
tically abandoned by them as a religious 
belief. In one temple where there were 
once one thousand monks, there are now 
less than one hundred. Throughout all 
this region there was a restless turning 
away from the ancient faiths. Mr. Swearer 
began work in a region where there were 
at least two hundred thousand people as 
yet untouched by the missionary. Here 
he baptized a man and his family in the fall 
of 1898. The gospel message flooded that 
village and spread to the surrounding vil- 
lages, keeping Mr. Swearer busy trav- 
eling, enrolling nev/ believers, organizing 



94 Korea 

Churches, and founding circuits. The work 
was organized into a presiding elder's dis- 
trict in 1901, with headquarters at Seoul, 
and Mr. Swearer was appointed presiding 
elder. PecuHarly gifted as an evangeHst, 
he gave himself up unsparingly to this . 
great work, walking as many as twenty- 
five hundred miles in one year. In seven 
years five thousand converts were enrolled, 
one hundred and twenty Churches organ- 
ized, and eleven circuits founded. He re- 
mained presiding elder of this district until 
his return to the United States on furlough 
in the summer of 1905. 

The work in the south was reinforced 

by Rev. Robert A. Sharp, who arrived on 

the field in 1903, and was married 

ong-ju gj^Qj-^iy afterward to Miss Alice 
Hammond, who had been for three years 
a devoted and consecrated worker of the; 
Woman's Foreign Missionary Society in 
Korea. They removed to Kong-ju, one 
hundred miles south of Seoul, on the line 
of the Japanese railroad in Korea, and the 
capital of a great province. This was an- 
other strategic center added to the list of 
mission stations. 



Expansion of the Mission 95 

Mr. and Mrs. Sharp began their work 
with every promise of large usefulness. In 
the midst of the trying difficulties attend- 
ing the building of the mission house, they 
lived in a Korean hut, itinerating through- 
out the region and organizing the scattered 
groups of believers into Churches. While 
on one of these journeys in 1906 Mr. Sharp 
contracted typhus fever, and in his ex- 
hausted and run-down condition physically 
he was unable to rally. He died, and thus 
passed away, after three years of service, 
one of the choicest spirits that ever went 
to the mission field. 

Rev. George M. Burdick joined the mis- 
sion in 1903, and has worked with much 
acceptability among the country Churches 
in the vicinity of Seoul. 









CHAPTER VI. 

CONCIvUSION. 

The^ conclusion of all missionary effort, 
the goal toward which all lines of endeavor 
The Native converge, is the creation of a self- 
Church reliant, self-supporting, and self- 
propagating native Church, worthy of the 
presence and reign of Christ. It is only 
fair to claim that the foundation of such 
a Church has been laid in Korea, and some 
of the characteristics of the superstructure 
are discernible. 

The response of the Koreans to the 
Christian religion has been most encour- 
Wonder- ^Z^^S' I^ ^hc work has moved 
ful Growth more rapidly in Korea than in 
other fields, it is a testimony to the inter- 
action and inter-relation of all mission 
fields. The wonderful fruitage in Korea 
was made possible by the wise pioneer work 
and splendid achievements of the mission- 
aries who labored so faithfully in China 
96 



Conclusion 97 

and Japan. In manifesting the worth of 
Christianity and the irresistible character 
of its propaganda, the conquering of preju- 
dice and achieving rights of residence, as 
well as in the preparation of literature and 
the translation of the Scriptures, the mis- 
sionary forces in China and Japan prepared 
the way for the wonderful success in Korea. 

One very significant feature of the nu- 
merical growth in Korea, is the contrast 
shown between that of Evangelical and 
Roman Christianity. The missionaries of 
the Roman Church heroically entered 
Korea a century before the Evangelical 
missionaries, and through storms of perse- 
cution built up a Church which, at the 
founding of Evangelical Christianity in 
Korea, is said to have numbered twenty- 
five thousand members. After twenty-one 
years the growth of Evangelical Christian- 
ity has overtaken and outstript that of the 
Roman Church, indicating that the domi- 
nant form of Christianity in Korea will be 
Evangelical, as is the case in America, 
Great Britain, and Germany. 

Under the Methodist Episcopal Mission 
the percentage of increase has been most 
7 



98 Korea 

encouraging, the net gain in recent times 

averaging one thousand members per year. 

Including inquirers, there are now 

Numbers ^^^^^ ^^^^^^ thoUSaud Church 

members, and if we add to these the con- 
verts enrolled under the Mission of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, there 
are fully twenty thousand Methodists in 
Korea. Surely this is creditable, not only 
to the successful endeavor of the mission- 
aries, but also in a large sense to the splen- 
did response given by the people of Korea 
to the Gospel message. 

Several causes have united to realize this 
Native splendid showing. Chief among 
Christians thcsc is the type of Christian into 
which the Korean develops. 

(a) The Korean practices the teachings 
of Christianity. The Bible plays a large 

Practice P^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^- ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^ 

the Bible that the newspaper and periodical 
literature, the story-book, the works of sci- 
ence, history, and biography are to his 
brother in Western lands. The Korean is 
a man of one book. He memorizes it, and 
his ability to repeat long passages from it 
is surprising. Taught by Confucianism to 



Conclusion 99 

regard the Classics as the chief text-book 
of all education, the daily companion in all 
walks of life, he transfers this attitude to 
the Bible, and never questions the need and 
paramount importance of an early and inti- 
mate acquaintance with it. 

The Korean not only memorizes Scrip- 
ture, he puts it into practice. One day 
there came into one of the mission stations 
a sturdy Christian from the north. After 
the usual greetings, he was asked the pur- 
pose of his visit. His reply was: ^'I have 
been memorizing some verses in the Bible, 
and have come to recite them to you." He 
lived a hundred miles away, and had 
walked all that distance, traveling four 
nights — a long stroll to recite some verses 
of Scripture to his pastor, but he was lis- 
tened to as he recited in Korean, without a 
verbal error, the entire Sermon on the 
Mount. He was told that if he simply 
memorized it, it would be a feat of memory 
and nothing more; he must practice its 
teachings. His face lighted up with a 
smile as he promptly replied: "That is the 
way I learned it. I tried to memorize it, 
but it would n't stick, so I hit on this plan. 

LOIFG. 



100 Korea 

I would memorize a verse, and then find a 
heathen neighbor of mine and practice the 
verse on him. Then I found it would 
stick." Imagine this humble Korean Chris- 
tian in a heathen city, amid the hills of the 
Peninsula, taking that matchless moral 
code and, precept by precept, putting it 
into practice in his life with his neighbors. 
Is it any wonder that the Korean Church 
grows ? 

(b) The Korean Christian breaks com- 
pletely with the old religious life. It is 
r r. o-^r, difficult for people born and edu- 
Complete catcd iu a Christian land to ap- 
preciate fully how radical are the first 
steps taken by the Korean as he leaves 
the faith of his fathers and turns to the 
new teaching. It is difficult for him to 
entirely disengage himself from all the old 
habits and customs, and the degree with 
which he is able to do this varies with the 
opportunities for instruction that he has 
had. But one inevitable result of the ac- 
ceptance of Christianity on the typical 
Korean Christian is the utter shattering of 
his old belief in the gods of his ancestors. 
Of the thousands of converts with whom 



Conclusion 101 

the writer is acquainted, only two were 
known to have apostatized and returned to 
the old gods after baptism. 

(c) The Korean Christian is tireless in 
working for the conversion of his family 

Tireless ^^^ neighbors, and in pushing the 
Activities activitics of the Church. The 
Korean regards Church membership as im- 
posing upon him the responsibilities of an 
office bearer. His life is lived within the 
Church in a large sense. Korea is still so 
dominantly a heathen nation, that the small 
Christian communities that have been es- 
tablished are very conspicuous, and the man 
who belongs to one of these communities 
is cut off from most of the relations which 
he held wnth his heathen neighbors. The 
ministry of the Korean Church is to-day in 
a noteworthy sense a universal one, for all 
the Church members esteem themselves as 
under obligation to press the claims of the 
Christian faith upon all with whom, they 
may come in contact. 

(d) The Korean Christian stands per- 
secution. While the Korean people are 
friendly to the foreign missionary, this is 
not their attitude toward the native con- 



102 Korea 

vert. By his conversion, family, commun- 
ial, social, and political relationships are 
Persecu- scriously disturbed, and he inevit- 
tion ably incurs the odium of having 
deserted the ancestral shrines for an alien 
faith. In the midst of these trying experi- 
ences, which in varying degrees befall all 
converts not born in Christian families, the 
convert heroically holds firm and true to 
Christ. We have already described the ex- 
periences of the first ordained preacher, 
Mr. Kim Chang Sik, at Pyeng Yang, The 
second man ordained to the ministry, Mr. 
Kim Ki-pom, was branded by his relatives 
and friends as a mad man, and avoided as 
one would avoid a pariah dog. A young 
man came to the mission house in Che- 
mulpo, and stated that he had received in 
his native village a copy of one of the 
gospels, and learning the address of the 
missionary, had come to inquire more per- 
fectly the way of faith. He was instructed, 
and so remarkable was the spirit that he 
manifested and so earnest his desire to be 
admitted to the Church, that at the end of 
three days he was baptized. Returning 
to his home and announcing his conversion, 



Conclusion 103 

his clan immediately called a meeting, and 
endeavored, by persuasion, entreaty, and 
threats, to win him back again to the an- 
cestral faith. Remaining firm, he was set 
upon by the more vehement of his relatives, 
who beat him and tried to trample him to 
death, but through it all he remained firm, 
his persecution only emboldened him, and 
he began to preach the Christian faith in 
neighboring villages. Several small Chris- 
tian communities were thus founded, and 
before three years had passed there could 
be found in these Christian Churches some 
of the very men who on that crucial day 
had tried to tread out of his heart with 
their hob-nailed shoes the faith that he had 
in Christ. 

(e) The Korean Christian is self-sup- 
porting. The missionaries have always em- 
ggj£_ phasized the fact that native 
support agency, supported by native funds, 
must be the final cause of the Christian- 
ization of the Korean Empire, and the pur- 
pose of the foreign missionary is to inaug- 
urate the work and then co-operate with 
the Korean Christian in extending it. This 
is to-day the keynote of the policy of the 



104 Korea 

mission, and to it the Korean gives a noble 
response. This can be illustrated in con- 
nection with an incident at Pyeng Yang 
Station. A sturdy specimen of the North- 
ern Korean became a Christian. He was 
the first convert in his village, and his 
home was the first meeting place. After 
a while the village church grew too large 
for its quarters, and put up a chapel of its 
own. Then there was a debt which had 
to be paid. There was no money with 
which to pay it, as the little group had ex- 
hausted their resources. This leader, how- 
ever, had one thing that he could sell — 
the ox, with which he did his plowing. 
One day he led it off to the market-place, 
and sold it and paid the debt of the church. 
The next spring when the missionary vis- 
ited this village he inquired for the leader, 
and was told that he was out in the field 
plowing. He walked down the road to the 
field, and this is what he saw : holding the 
handles of the plow was the old, gray- 
haired father of the family, and hitched in 
the traces where the ox should have been 
was this Korean Christian and his brother, 
dragging his plow through the fields this 



Conclusion 105 

year themselves. Doubtless there was an- 
other, whom mortal eye could not see, with 
form like unto the Son of God, hitched to 
the yoke with these humble Korean Chris- 
tians, making the burden light and the yoke 
easy that year. 

A second cause contributing to the suc- 
cess of missionary w^ork in Korea is found 
Lj , in the conditions amidst which the 

riopeless- 

ness of taissionaries labored. Misgovern- 
Paganism j^^^t and Oppression had reduced 
the people to despair. The measures taken 
for 0mmercial and political betterment 
under native leadership had terminated in 
disappointing failure. The people were 
tired out, weary, and disheartened with the 
ba,rrenness _pf pagan beliefs and religions. 
Morally they were decrepit and moribund. 
Into the gloomy, chilly atmosphere of their 
moral life came the gospel of Jesus Christ 
with its radiant promises of better things, 
and the Koreans turned as instinctively to 
it as the flower to the sunshine. There has 
been a lack of competition with Christianity 
which has given to Christian forces virtu- 
ally a monopoly of the field. ^Io great edu- 
cational development or commercial expan- 



106 Korea 

sion, no large military and naval develop- 
ment has taken place to challenge and hold 
the attention of the people. There has not 
yet arisen in Korea a many-tongued press 
and literature, with its babel and clamor 
of beliefs and propositions to dispute with 
Christianity the control of the intellectual 
life of the people. The only new literature, 
and with few exceptions the only period- 
icals issued, came from Christian sources. 
Each political change and disturbance of 
the social order has accelerated the turning 
of the Koreans to the Christian Church., 
while the absence of a nationalistic idea has 
resulted in a lack of strength and virility 
in the devotion of the average Korean to 
his religious beliefs. It can hardly be ex-» 
pected that these conditions will continue, 
Methodism has not given to the Korean 
field that support which her opportunities 
and obligations made imperative. As a 
Church we should immediately increase our 
staff of foreign missionaries by one hun- 
dred new missionaries, which would make 
certain the speedy evangelization of the 
land. Now is the strategic time to enter 
Korea and secure the great harvest which 

■c* 



Conclusion 107 

is the natural product of such a seed-sow- 
ing in such a field. 

A third great factor has been the spirit 
of union and co-operation which has pre- 
Mission vailed among the Presbyterian 
Union and Methodist missions from the 
very inception of the work. The absence 
of sectarian jealousy and petty rivalry has 
unified the Christian body in the face of 
paganism. It has been the custom of these 
missions to counsel together, and mission 
policies have been projected on converging 
lines, looking to the founding of a strong, 
united Christian Church in Korea. At the 
present time it is proposed to maintain, 
under the joint control of all the missions 
at work in Korea, common Christian insti- 
tutions and periodicals, and the beginning 
has been made in the Union Publishing- 
house and a central high school at Seoul, 
while hospital work has been unified at 
some of the mission stations. The Churches 
in America and Great Britain can not but 
watch with interest the experiment in Ko- 
rea, for its success will bring about closer 
bonds of union and wiser policies of co-op- 
eration and co-relationship than in the past. 



108 Korea 

An interesting* development of the period 

under review, and one which effectively 

illustrates the interaction of home 

Expansion ^-^^ foreign missions, has come 

to Hawaii . , .11 

about m connection with the emi- 
gration of the Koreans to Hawaii. About 
eight thousand of them have come to the 
islands and been employed on the sugar 
plantations, while others have found inde- 
pendent employment or have come on to 
the Pacific Coast or the United States. The 
first company of Korean emigrants num- 
bered seventy, among whom were twenty- 
eight Christians from Churches on the 
West Korea District. These organized a 
prayer-meeting in the steerage of their 
ship and carried on Christian work among 
their fellow emigrants, so that when they 
landed under the Stars and Stripes they 
had a Methodist Episcopal Church organ- 
ized, and fifty-eight of the company were 
members. This work has continued on, 
until to-day fully twenty-five per cent of 
the Koreans are members of a Christian 
Church in Hawaii, or attendants at Chris- 
tian services. From the first Dr. Pearson 
and his successor, Dr. Wadman, superin- 



Conclusion 109 

tendent of the Japanese Mission in Hawaii, 
have given this work their earnest thought 
and care. Much credit is also due to the 
interest and co-operation of the planters 
themselves, who have encouraged the work 
and contributed liberally to its support. 
Thus the Korean emigrants, instead of con- 
stituting a great home missionary problem, 
have brought into our land a practical illus- 
tration of the far-reaching character of 
foreign missionary work in other lands, 
and constitute an inspiration both to larger 
faith and larger endeavor for the evangel- 
ization of non-Christian people. 

In November, 1905, Korea by treaty 
identified herself with the Japanese Empire, 

c, assuming the position of a pro- 

ouze- . - 

rainty of tcctcd statc. Marquis Ito, one of 
Japan ^j^^ makers of the new Japan, was 
appointed Resident General, with vice-regal 
power, and took up his residence in the 
Korean Empire as a co-ordinate power of 
government with the Korean Emperor. 
Naturally some friction arose at first, the 
Koreans feeling extremely unhappy at the 
loss of their age-long independence. So 
marvelous is the political sagacity of Japan, 
and so successful has been her political 



110 Korea 

policy in the past, that the arrangement 
can not but result in good for the Koreans 
and in enhancing the international repu- 
tation of the Japanese Empire. This union 
of the two empires in their destiny was 
foreseen, and in the General Conference of 
1904 Korea was combined with Japan in 
one Episcopal jurisdiction, and the Rev. 
Bishop M- C. Harris, D. D., LL. D., for 
Harris many years superintendent of the 
Japanese Mission in the United States was 
elected Bishop. Entering upon his work at 
a time when the two nations were passing 
through great changes, and the Christian 
Churches in the Empire were facing great 
transitional changes, Bishop Harris brought 
to his task large experience, an intimate 
knowledge of Asiatic people, a wide and 
influential circle of friends, a distinguished 
reputation, and a heroic spirit. The sig- 
nificance of the election of Bishop Harris 
lies in the fact that it has placed the Church 
in touch with the whole trend of the life of 
the peoples of Korea and Japan, and there 
is no doubt that in the future which lies 
before these people the Church must come 
to play more and more a prominent and 
effective part. 



